Short-term inflation in Pakistan, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI) for the week ending on February 12, decreased 0.59 per cent, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

The SPI-based inflation has been on an upward trend for the past few weeks, mainly driven by a surge in prices of perishable products, pulses, and meat.

Major decreases noted during this time period were in the prices of eggs (17.61pc), followed by tomatoes (12.02pc), chicken (6.34pc), onions (2.73pc), potatoes (2.49pc), salt powder (1.69pc), LPG (1.57pc), wheat flour (1.31pc), and sugar (1.12pc).

Major increases were in the prices of bananas (7.62pc), garlic (4.35pc), pulse mash (2.69pc), chilies powder (1.68pc), mutton (0.80pc), beef (0.37pc), mustard oil (0.34pc), shirting (0.31pc), cigarettes (0.24pc), vegetable ghee 1Kg (0.08pc), and georgette (0.02pc).

The year-on-year data show a 4.26pc increase.

The major influences contirbuting to this annual trend were an increase in tomatoes (73.36pc), wheat flour (33.82pc), gas charges for Q1 (29.85pc), chilli powder (15.20pc), beef (12.70pc), eggs (11.76pc), bananas (11.67pc), firewood (11.40pc), LPG (10.73pc), powdered milk (9.89pc), shirting (8.82pc) and gur (8.81pc).

Major decreases were seen in the prices of potatoes (44.68pc), garlic (30.78pc), pulse gram (23.81pc), onions (22.04pc), chicken (20.13pc), tea lipton (13.95pc), salt powder (12.52pc), pulse masoor (10.88pc), and petrol (1.33pc)

The weekly SPI base year 2015–16=100, covers 17 urban centres and tracks the prices of 51 essential items across all expenditure groups and quintiles.