ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), rose 9.66 per cent year-on-year for the week ending Aug 20, mainly due to higher petrol and diesel prices, according to official data released on Friday.

As a result, transportation costs have increased over the past few weeks. This increase has also been reflected in the prices of essential food items, including onions and tomatoes.

On a week-on-week (WoW) basis, the index increased by 0.49pc, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

The overall SPI showed a broad-based rise, indicating continued pressure on the cost of living. The increase was largely driven by sharp gains in key items on a year-on-year basis, including petrol (27.65pc), diesel (33.08pc), LPG (51.69pc) and wheat flour (62.25pc).

The items, whose prices increased the most over the previous week included onions (14.17pc), petrol (3.77pc), chicken (3.35pc), garlic (2pc), pulse gram (0.93pc), tea prepared (0.70pc), tea Lipton (0.34pc), milk fresh (0.17pc), cooked daal (0.15pc), washing soap (0.12pc) and cigarettes (0.06pc).

The items whose prices declined week-on-week included eggs (5.78pc), diesel (5.15pc), tomatoes (4.99pc), potatoes (1.17pc), LPG (1.04pc), bananas (0.91pc), pulse moong (0.56pc), sugar (0.24pc), and pulse masoor and pulse mash (0.14pc).

On an annual basis, the items whose prices increased the most onions (132.52pc), tomatoes (93.21pc), wheat flour (62.25pc), LPG (51.69pc), diesel (33.08pc), petrol (27.65pc), electricity for Q1 (22.72pc), bananas (17.66pc), chilies powder (16.37pc), mutton (15.98pc), beef (13.54pc) and bread plain (9.37pc).

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2026