ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), increased four per cent year-on-year in the week ending Dec 4, owing to an increase in the retail price of edible oil and wheat flour in the domestic market.

The SPI-based inflation has been on an upward trend for the past 18 consecutive weeks. A surge in the prices of perishable products, LPG cylinders, and electricity mainly drives the increase.

It, however, declined by 0.64pc from the previous week due to a slight dec­line in prices of tomatoes, potatoes and onions, official data showed on Friday.

The prices of tomatoes, onions, and potatoes rose sharply due to supply disruptions caused by the closure of the border with Afghanistan. The extraordinary spike in the retail prices of sugar and meat also contributed to fuel the short-term inflation.

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, 2023.

The items whose prices increased the most over the previous week included LPG (3.50pc), garlic (1.86pc), cooking oil 5 litre (1.54pc), eggs (0.81pc), bread (0.57pc), vegetable ghee 1 kg (0.40pc), powdered milk (0.36pc), bananas and wheat flour (0.28pc) each and cigarettes (0.25pc).

The items whose prices saw a decline week-on-week included tomatoes (30.11pc), onions (12.41pc), potatoes (6.92pc), chicken (4.46pc), sugar (3.31pc), diesel (1.67pc), pulse gram (1.55pc), pulse masoor (1.33pc), gur (1pc) and petrol (0.73pc).

However, on an annual basis, the items whose prices increased the most included sugar (37.49pc), gas charges for Q1 (29.85pc), wheat flour (17.50pc), gur (15.06pc), beef (13.47pc), firewood (12.59pc), bananas (11.06pc), powdered milk (9.03pc), diesel (8.42pc), lawn printed (8.29pc), cooking oil 5 litre (8.19pc) and vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (7.59pc).

In contrast, the prices of potatoes dropped 40.47pc, followed by garlic (38.51pc), tomatoes (31.51pc), onions (29.87pc), pulse gram (29.54pc), tea Lipton (17.79pc), pulse mash (13.82pc), electricity charges for Q1 (8.40pc) and salt powder (5.13pc).

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2025