ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation, as measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), rose by 4.17 per cent year-on-year in the week ending Sept 18, primarily due to higher retail prices of non-perishable goods in the domestic market.

This marks the eighth consecutive week of SPI inflation growth.

Rising prices of items such as rice, vegetable ghee, mutton, beef, chicken, LPG, and sugar largely drove the increase in inflation. However, there was a 1.34pc decline compared to the previous week, according to official data released on Friday.

In addition, the retail prices of tomatoes, onions, and potatoes have surged in recent days, driven by crop damage caused by flooding. The prices of sugar and meat also saw a significant rise, contributing to the recent uptick in inflation.

The retail price of sugar ranged between Rs195 and Rs200 per kilogram during the week under review. Despite this, the overall rate of short-term inflation has slowed due to the higher base effect from last year, with prices stabilising for most products, except for wheat flour and a few perishable items. The price of meat has continued to rise steadily in recent weeks.

The items whose prices increased the most over the previous week included diesel (1.06pc), eggs (0.91pc), rice basmati broken (0.84pc), georgette (0.83pc), rice IRRI-6/9 (0.78pc), firewood (0.59pc), beef (0.42pc), mutton and cooked beef (0.31pc) each, vegetable ghee 1 Kg (0.25pc), energy saver (0.23pc) and pulse moong (0.10pc).

The items whose prices saw a decline week-on-week included tomatoes (23.11pc), chicken (12.74pc), electricity charges for Q1 (6.21pc), bananas (5.07pc), wheat flour (2.60pc), onions (1.17pc), pulse masoor (0.64pc), pulse gram (0.47pc) and garlic (0.46pc).

However, on an annual basis, the items whose prices increased the most included ladies sandal (55.62pc), tomatoes (49.02pc), sugar (30.17pc), gas charges for Q1 (29.85pc), pulse moong (15.79pc), wheat flour (15.70pc), firewood (12.40pc), gur (12.36pc), beef (12.31pc), vegetable ghee 2.5 Kg (11.26pc), vegetable ghee 1 Kg (11.09pc) and diesel (9.51pc).

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2025