ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), continued to fall for the third week, slowing to 16.86 per cent in the period ending August 8, official data showed on Friday.

The downward trend is mainly in the year-on-year rate due to last year’s high base. However, the SPI saw a decline of 0.16pc on a week-on-week basis.

The weekly inflation hit a record 48.35pc year-on-year in early May 2023, but then decelerated as low as 24.4pc in late August 2023 before surging past 40pc in mid-November. The last reading above 40pc was witnessed in late January.

During the past week, the items whose prices decreased week-on-week included onions (4.91pc), petrol (3.15pc), diesel (2.44pc), wheat flour (1.83pc), pulse moong (1.81pc), chicken (1.57pc), bananas (1.36pc), LPG (0.90pc), sugar (0.59pc), potatoes (0.58pc) and pulse masoor (0.56pc).

Products whose prices increased included tomatoes (34.77pc), eggs (4.78pc), garlic (1.99pc), beef (0.88pc), cooked beef (0.41pc), georgette (0.40pc), gur (0.39pc), curd (0.32pc) and mustard oil (0.28pc).

The SPI index, comprising 51 items collected from 50 markets in 17 cities, is computed weekly to assess the prices of essential commodities and services at shorter intervals. Data showed that in the week under review, the prices of 19 items increased, those of 13 items decreased and those of 19 items remained stable compared to the previous week.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2024