ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), saw a year-on-year increase of 37.07 per cent for the week ending Oct 5, according to official data released on Friday.

The short-term inflation has been on the rise for the fourth consecutive week, primarily driven by a surge in retail prices of petroleum products. This increase has a domino effect on various sectors, particularly amplifying transportation costs.

This is the highest increase in three weeks because things are getting expensive every week.

In the previous week, the caretaker government had marginally lowered the prices of petroleum products after having increased the rates for over three successive fortnights, triggering a hike in transport fares. The cost of moving goods has also increased due to the higher fuel prices. To meet the demand, the country has been relying on imports of essential vegetables such as tomatoes, onions, potatoes and various other items from Afghanistan.

However, some relief was seen in the prices of a few vegetables after the Torkham border with Afghanistan reopened. The short-term inflation remained elevated. It, however, rose 0.11pc from the preceding week.

Of the 51 items in the SPI basket, prices of 19 goods soared, 16 dropped and 16 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: electricity charges for Q1 (118.16pc), gas charges for Q1 (108.38pc), cigarettes (94.69pc), rice basmati broken (87.60pc), chilli powder (84.84pc), sugar (79.55pc), rice Irri-6/9 (78.69pc), wheat flour (77.91pc), gur (67.68pc), tea Lipton (60.72pc), gents sponge chappal (58.05pc), salt (56.48pc), garlic (54.78pc), gents sandal (53.37pc), petrol (43.70pc) and potatoes (42.99pc).

The biggest rise week-on-week was seen in the prices of tomatoes (12.45pc), onions (11.96pc), garlic (2.59pc), potatoes (1.81pc), cooked daal (1.27pc), eggs (0.84pc), beef (0.53pc), bread (0.52pc), LPG 3.11pc, firewood 0.76pc and long cloth 0.51pc.

In May, the SPI stayed above 45pc for three weeks after hitting an all-time high at 48.35pc on May 4.

The rupee depreciation, rising petrol prices, sales tax and electricity bills are among the key contributors to this inflationary trend. According to the latest IMF forecast, the average Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the current fiscal year is projected to be 25.9pc from the previous year’s 29.6pc.

Meanwhile, a decrease was also observed on a week-on-week basis in the prices of diesel (3.33pc), chicken (2.78pc), petrol (2.40pc), pulse masoor (1.80pc), pulse gram (1.73pc), gur (1.14pc), pulse moong (0.58pc), pulse mash (0.33pc), wheat flour (0.32pc) and vegetable ghee (0.20pc).

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2023