ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), increased by 15.28 per cent year-on-year for the week ending June 20, mainly due to higher retail prices of perishable food items, according to official data released on Friday.

The SPI showed a broad-based rise, indicating continued pressure on the cost of living. The year-on-year increase was largely driven by sharp gains in key items, including petrol (44.73pc), diesel (44.39pc), electricity charges (59.40pc), wheat flour (58.72pc), and liquefied petroleum gas (52.66pc).

Food inflation remained elevated, with notable increases in the prices of onion, tomato, potato, mutton, beef and wheat flour.

The government has announced a steep cut in petrol and diesel rates effective June 20. The impact of this decline will be visible in next week’s SPI data.

Despite this limited easing, energy-related costs continued to weigh on household budgets and push up transport expenses across the economy. The SPI has now recorded an increase for the 44th consecutive week.

On a week-on-week basis, the index increased by 0.46pc compared to the previous week, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

The items, whose prices increased the most over the previous week, included tomatoes (16.65pc), potatoes (6.82pc), chicken (5.60pc), washing soap (1.16pc), gur (0.65pc), mutton and LPG (0.51pc) each, shirting (0.48pc), long cloth (0.43pc), eggs (0.35pc), milk fresh (0.29pc) and curd (0.26pc).

The items whose prices saw a decline week-on-week included onions (2.98pc), garlic (2.51pc), bananas (1.28pc), petrol (1.06pc), pulse mash (1.04pc), salt powder (0.95pc), pulse moong (0.61pc), wheat flour (0.53pc), diesel (0.51pc) and pulse gram (0.04pc).

However, on an annual basis, the items whose prices increased the most were onions (79.76pc), tomatoes (68.59pc), electricity charges for Q1 (59.40pc), wheat flour (58.72pc), LPG (52.66pc), petrol (44.73pc), diesel (44.39pc), mutton (16.30pc), chilies powder (15.20pc), beef (12.86pc), garlic (10.74pc) and bread (8.67pc).

In contrast, the prices of potatoes dropped 41.09pc, followed by eggs (26.98pc), pulse gram (22.32pc), sugar (17.51pc), salt powder (14.09pc), pulse masoor (12.25pc), pulse moong (5.48pc) and chicken (4.24pc).

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2026