ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), rose 1.73pc year-on-year during the week ending Aug 8, driven mainly by rising prices of perishable food items in the domestic market.

On a week-on-week basis, the SPI inched up by 0.05pc, according to data released on Friday.

This marks the third consecutive week of an upward trend in the SPI, largely attributed to increased prices of vegetables such as tomatoes and onions, as well as chicken and diesel.

Rising retail prices of sugar, vegetables, and meat have also contributed to the reversal of the earlier downward trajectory observed in recent weeks. Tomato, onion, and potato prices continued to rise due to increased transportation costs.

Sugar prices surged further, reaching Rs185-200 per kg in retail markets.

Week-on-week, the items showing the highest price increases included: onions (16.53pc), tomatoes (10.17pc), chicken (4.12pc), eggs (1.32pc), diesel (0.52pc), pulse masoor (0.34pc), tea prepared (0.31pc), mustard oil (0.20pc), cigarettes (0.12pc), firewood (0.08pc) and fresh milk (0.05pc).

Meanwhile, prices declined for: LPG (3.21pc), petrol (2.75pc), bananas (1.56pc), pulse moong (1.09pc), pulse mash (1.07pc), potatoes (0.44pc), sugar (0.37pc), garlic (0.36pc), rice basmati broken (0.28pc) and wheat flour (0.24pc).

On an annual basis, the sharpest increases were observed in: ladies sandal (55.62pc), gas charges for Q1 (29.85pc), sugar (21.75pc), beef (14.15pc), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (12.20pc), pulse moong (12.09pc), vegetable ghee 1 kg (11.58pc), firewood (11.22pc), gur (10.94pc), cooked beef (9.31pc), bananas (9.29pc) and lawn printed (7.32pc).

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2025