ISLAMABAD: The short-term inflation, based on the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), posted a year-on-year increase of 28.96 per cent for the week ending on July 13, showed the official data released on Friday.

The inflation stayed above 28pc for the past two weeks, but it decelerated a bit in the past eight weeks because the petroleum price went down a little.

In May, the short-term inflation remained over 45pc for three weeks after hitting an all-time high at 48.35pc on May 4.

On a week-on-week basis, SPI rose 0.33pc.

Of the 51 items in the SPI basket, prices of 21 goods soared, 11 dropped and 19 remained unchanged compared to the previous week.

During the week under review, the items whose prices increased the most over the same week a year ago were: wheat flour (129.84pc), cigarettes (111.74pc), gas charges for Q1 (108.38pc), tea Lipton (101.56pc), rice basmati broken (76.74pc), rice Irri-6/9 (73.88pc), potatoes (61.67pc), gents sponge chappal (58.05pc), sugar (57.91pc), chicken (56.06pc), salt powdered (53.49pc), gur (48.30pc) and bread (46.86pc).

On a week-on-week basis, the biggest rise was observed in the prices of sugar (5.22pc), wheat flour (4.23pc), gur (3.68 pc), salt powdered (2.17pc) and eggs (1.34pc). The lower-income segment of society is already feeling the brunt of high inflation.

Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2023