ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), was 4.92 per cent year-on-year in the week ending Nov 21 owing to surging vegetable and edible oil prices.

The SPI-based inflation reversed to a modest increase after three straight weeks of decline on an annual basis. On week-on-week, it increased by 0.67pc, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics data showed on Friday.

After brief stability, the upward trend in short-term inflation was due to increased prices of food items, such as tomatoes, chicken, and edible oil. The government has kept petrol prices unchanged in the latest review.

In March, the decline in SPI came after a consistent 11-week period of inflation above 40pc, which surged from 29pc recorded on Nov 8, 2023. 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 Aug 2023 before surging past 40pc during the week ending on Nov 16, 2023.

The items whose prices rose week-on-week included ladies sandal (55.62pc), tomatoes (20.72pc), potatoes (3.81pc), garlic (3.42pc), eggs (3.16pc), and vegetable ghee (2.30pc).

The items whose prices fell the most over the previous week included chicken (2.97pc), pulse gram (1.70pc), LPG (0.80pc), pulse masoor (0.62pc), rice basmati broken (0.40pc), sugar (0.27pc), and wheat flour (0.25pc).

On an annual basis, the items whose prices increased the most included ladies sandal (75.09pc), pulse gram (70.95pc), pulse moong (38.53pc), powdered milk (25.74pc), beef (23.79pc), onions (21.05pc), tomatoes (19.69pc), garlic (16.08pc), gas charges for Q1 ( 15.52pc), shirting (15.27pc), mutton (14.80pc) and georgette (13.07pc).

In contrast, the prices of wheat flour dropped 35.49pc followed by chillies powder (20pc), diesel (13.92pc), petrol (11.64pc), tea Lipton (11.07pc), rice basmati broken (8.25pc), pulse masoor (7.21pc), bread (5.99pc), electricity charges for Q1 (5.07pc), sugar (3.67pc) and cooking oil 5 litre (2.98pc).

The 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 the prices of 17 items increased, those of 11 items decreased, and those of 23 items remained stable compared to the previous week.

Published in Dawn, November 23th, 2024