ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), increased 4.07 per cent year-on-year in the week ending October 2, owing to an increase in the retail price of food products in the domestic market.

The SPI-based inflation rate recorded an upward trend for the past 10 consecutive weeks. The increase is mainly driven by a surge in prices of perishable products, including tomatoes, and petroleum products. It, however, increase by 0.56pc from the previous week, official data showed on Friday.

The prices of onions and potatoes saw an increase owing to disruption in supply due to floods. The extraordinary spike in the retail prices of sugar, and meat also contributed in reversing the trend during the past weeks under review.

The retail price of sugar in the market reached to Rs195 to Rs200 per kg.

The overall short-term inflation rate has also slowed due to the higher base of last year. Moreover, the prices remained stable for most of the products, excluding wheat flour and a few perishable products. The price of meat is steadily on the rise in the past few weeks.

The weekly inflation hit a record 48.35pc year-on-year in early May 2023, but then decelerated to 24.4pc in late August 2023 before surging past 40pc during the week ending Nov 16.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2025