ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), slowed to 21.31 per cent on an annual basis in the week ending May 23, official data showed on Friday.

However, it witnessed a 0.34pc decline on a week-on-week basis, mainly due to the drop in prices of wheat flour, LPG, onions, rice, and a few vegetables, including tomatoes.

The items whose prices declined week-on-week included garlic (7.87pc), chicken (5.92pc), wheat flour (4.66pc), LPG (3.23pc), onions (1.99pc), eggs (1.22pc), rice basmati broken (1.12pc), pulse masoor (0.95pc), rice IRRI (0.84pc) and firewood (0.04pc).

The items whose prices increased the most over the previous week included beef (0.49pc), energy saver (0.44pc), pulse gram (0.42pc), milk powder (0.37pc), tea prepared (0.30pc), mutton (0.25pc).

However, on an annual basis, the items whose prices increased the most included gas charges for Q1 (570pc), onions (88.26pc), chillies powder (69.71pc), garlic (53.46pc), tomatoes (38.63pc), beef (23.70pc), energy saver (22.48pc), pulse mash (21.79pc) and sugar (20.18pc).

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2024