ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), surged by 9.04 per cent year-on-year for the week ending August 27, mainly due to higher energy prices, according to official data released on Friday.

The government is steadily increasing petrol and diesel prices on a daily basis. As a result, transport costs have also risen over the past few weeks. This increase in transport prices has also been reflected in the prices of essential food items, including onions, tomatoes and other vegetables.

The index increased by 0.05pc compared to the previous week, 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 year-on-year gains in key items, including petrol (29.84pc), diesel (36.33pc), LPG (55.66pc) and wheat flour (45.28pc).

The SPI has now recorded an increase for the 72nd consecutive week. Although the pace of growth has slowed, it reflects sustained pressure on consumers.

The items, whose prices increased the most over the previous week included LPG (3.46pc), diesel (2.44pc), electricity for Q1 (2.06pc), petrol (1.71pc), pulse gram (0.88pc), wheat flour (0.39pc), eggs (0.34pc), mustard oil & pulse masoor (0.30pc) each, tea prepared (0.20pc), pulse mash (0.17pc) and beef (0.06pc).

The items whose prices declined week-on-week included tomatoes (18.65pc), chicken (4.41pc), onions (2.87pc), bananas (2.80pc), garlic (1.02pc), rice IRRI-6/9 (0.42pc), rice basmati broken (0.41pc), and potatoes (0.39pc).

However, on an annual basis, the items whose prices increased the most were onions (125.86pc), LPG (55.66pc), wheat flour (45.28pc), tomatoes (36.69pc), diesel (36.33pc), petrol (29.84pc), electricity for Q1 (25.24pc), chillies powder (16.37pc), mutton (16.01pc), bananas (14.50pc), beef (13.61pc) and bread plain (9.37pc).

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2026