ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price In­­dex (SPI), rose 13.89 per cent on an annual basis in the week ending Nov 7 due to an increase in the pri­c­­es of perishable products.

The upward trend in short-term inflation is due to an increase in the prices of perishable food products such as onions, tomatoes, potatoes and LPG cylinder. The petrol price slightly increased during the previous week.

The SPI-based inflation decelerated compa­red to 14.45pc in the preced-ing week. However, it increased by 0.24pc week-on-week, official data showed on Friday.

The items whose prices saw an increase week-on-week included LPG (3.37pc), eggs (2.70pc), potatoes (2.63pc), onions (2.61pc), mustard oil (2.36pc), tomatoes (1.67pc), diesel (1.54pc), vegetable ghee 1kg (1.49pc), five-litre cooking oil (1.35pc), pulse moong (0.93pc), petrol (0.56pc) and washing soap (0.47pc).

The items whose prices declined the most over the previous week included ba­­­­nanas (2.63pc), sugar (1.49pc), chicken (1.23pc), gur (0.99pc), pulse mash (0.72pc), pulse gram (0.60pc), rice IRRI-6/9 (0.43pc) and pulse masoor (0.27pc).

However, on an annual basis, the items whose pri­ces increased the most in­­cluded gas charges for Q1 (570pc), pulse gram (80.59pc), pulse moong (40.46pc), powdered milk (25.74pc), beef (23.40pc), onions (20.87pc), shirting (16.35pc), garlic (16.06pc), cooked daal (15.36pc), mutton (14.02pc), ladies sandal (12.52pc) and firewood (12.43pc).

In contrast, the prices of wheat flour dropped 33.26pc, followed by tomatoes (28.98pc), electricity charges for Q1 (20.32pc), chilies powder (20pc), diesel (15.77pc), petrol (12.28pc), sugar (8.91pc), rice basmati broken (7.98pc), cooking oil 5-litre (6.08pc), bread (5.55pc) and tea Lipton (3.33pc).

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2024