ISLAMABAD: Inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), increased by 2.67 per cent from the previous week due to increases in energy and food prices, showed data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Saturday.

The increase in the weekly inflation is the highest in 144 weeks or three years amid an increase in petrol and diesel prices to revive IMF extended fund facility programme.

The year-on-year increase in SPI was 23.98pc during the week under review.

The impact of the increase of Rs30 per litre of petrol and other petroleum products will be further visible in next week’s SPI calculations, which will further go up. It is expected government increase prices further next week.

The government has announced in the budget to revive sales tax on petroleum products as well as impose a petroleum development levy in a phased manner. Moreover, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail in a post-budget press conference also hinted at a further increase in fuel prices.

Miftah said that he was increasing petroleum product prices to reduce subsidy elements. “I am not taking the money but it comes to the government kitty”, he further said. However, he did not mention the inflationary impact of these measures.

The government project a modest inflationary annual target of 11.5pc for FY23.

Taking to the social media platform Twitter, former finance minister Shaukat Tarin tweeted: “I see inflation moving towards 25/30pc. PDM used to blame us for 12pc. They are crushing the poor people of this country. Should resign and call for fresh election]”.

Mr Tarin once again reminded the PDM government that instead of passing on the impact of rising oil prices to poor consumers, it should reduce the margins of refineries and try to get discounted Russian oil and shift to targeted subsidies.

Soon after coming into power, the PML-N-led coalition government disbanded the dedicated National Price Monitoring Committee, which was led by the finance minister, while provinces were represented by provincial chief secretaries. The committee met every Monday to monitor the prices of essential food commodities. Data shows that the prices of 33 essential food items increased during the week under review.

The price of potatoes rose by 7.01pc, tomatoes 6.15pc, vegetable ghee 1kg 3.62pc, eggs 3.30pc, milk fresh 2.51pc, pulse gram 2.31pc, vegetable ghee 2.5 kg &, curd 2.02pc each, onions 1.96pc, cooked daal 1.66pc and cooking oil 5 litre 1.45pc.

In the non-food items, the price of high-speed diesel rose 17.18pc, petrol 16.61pc. On the other hand, the prices of five items declined during the week, including chicken 10.53pc, garlic 0.43pc, wheat flour 0.22pc, LPG 0.12pc and bananas 0.07pc.

The SPI increased by 1.72pc for the lowest income group (i.e. people earning below Rs17,732 per month) and by 2.99pc for the group with a monthly income of above Rs44,175.

Of the 51 items whose prices were surveyed, the prices of 33 items increased, that of five items decreased, whereas the prices of 13 items remained constant.

Published in Dawn,June 12th, 2022