ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), rose 3.71 per cent year-on-year in the week ending Dec 12 owing to a bullish trend in edible oil prices.

The SPI-based inflation reversed to a modest increase after posting a decline last week. It increased by 0.07pc from the previous week, official data showed on Friday.

The slight increase on a week-on-week basis is due to the rise in prices of vegetable ghee, cooking oil, and potatoes. The increase continues in perishable food products and energy products like LPG.

The government increased petrol prices in the last review, which impacted transportation charges.

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 saw the increase week-on-week included chicken (3.80pc), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (2.27pc), bananas (1.99pc), potatoes (1.93pc), mustard oil (1.07pc), cooking oil 5-litre (0.98pc), washing soap (0.80pc), vegetable ghee 1kg (0.52pc), cooked daal (0.40pc), energy saver (0.31pc), LPG (0.28pc) and cigarettes (0.26pc).

The items whose prices decreased the most over the previous week included onions (3.58pc), tomatoes (3.10pc), eggs (2.14pc), garlic (1.58pc), pulse gram (1.19pc), rice IRRI-6/9 (0.75pc), pulse mash (0.59pc), wheat flour (0.58pc) and firewood (0.16pc).

However, on an annual basis, the items whose prices increased the most included ladies sandal (75.09pc), pulse gram (59.55pc), pulse moong (36.44pc), potatoes (36.16pc), powdered milk (25.74pc), beef (23.82pc), tomatoes (20.51pc), garlic (15.97pc), gas charges for Q1 ( 15.52pc), cooked daal (14.85pc), shirting (14.54pc) and firewood (12.05pc).

In contrast, the prices of wheat flour dropped 35.88pc followed by chillies powder (20pc), diesel (10.77pc), petrol (10.33pc), pulse masoor (10.26pc), onions (8.92pc), rice basmati broken (7.46pc), electricity charges for Q1 (6.96pc), sugar (6.52pc), bread (5.99pc) and tea Lipton (5.09pc).

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2024