ISLAMABAD: The short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), posted its biggest-ever fall during the week ending on April 24, dropping 3.51 per cent compared to the same period a year ago.

The major decrease came on the back of a significant decline in the prices of onions, tomatoes, garlic, wheat flour, electricity and fuel.

The SPI has now declined for the eighth week in a row, meaning the prices of the 51 items in the basket dropped on average when compared to last year.

Compared to the previous week, the SPI also noted a fall of 1.92pc, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

The items whose prices saw a decline week-on-week included electricity charges for Q1 (19.17pc), chicken (11.75pc), wheat flour (5.68pc), garlic (4.66pc), bananas (3.51pc), onions (1.93pc), rice IRRI-6/9 (1.58pc), mustard oil (1.10pc), LPG (1.09pc) and tomatoes (0.76pc).

The items whose prices increased the most over the previous week included potatoes (6.94pc), eggs (0.66pc), salt powder & cigarettes (0.51pc) each, gur (0.37pc), curd (0.18pc), pulse masoor (0.09pc), long cloth (0.08pc), pulse gram (0.07%) and lawn printed (0.06pc).

However, on an annual basis, the items whose prices increased the most included ladies sandal (55.62pc), pulse moong (26.85pc), powdered milk (23.11pc), pulse gram (21.08pc), beef (18.64pc), sugar (16.14pc), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (15.45pc), vegetable ghee 1 kg (14.50pc), cooked daal (12.77pc), firewood (10.49pc), lawn printed (10.33pc) and georgette (9.90pc).

In contrast, the prices of onions dropped 69.78pc, followed by tomatoes (40.77pc), garlic (31.96pc), wheat flour (30.70pc), electricity charges for Q1 (29.40pc), tea Lipton (16.98pc), potatoes (16.93pc), chillies powder (15.69pc), pulse mash (15.62pc), petrol (13.24pc) and diesel (10.85pc).

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2025