ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), surged by 11.92 per cent year-on-year for the week ending Sept 24, mainly due to higher food prices, according to official data released on Friday.

On a week-on-week basis, the index rose by 0.99pc, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

Short-term inflation has recorded double-digit growth over the past few weeks due to persistent increases in petroleum prices. Unwilling to reduce the petroleum development levy (PDL), the government is steadily raising petrol and diesel prices daily, barring a few negligible downward revisions. The rising energy prices are indirectly contributing to higher sales tax collection.

At the same time, an unprecedented increase in transportation costs has also been reflected in the prices of essential food items, including onions, tomatoes and other vegetables.

The SPI has now risen for the 74th consecutive week.

The items, whose prices increased the most over the previous week included electricity for Q1 (18.76pc), eggs (2.02pc), garlic (1.57pc), LPG (1.55pc), pulse masoor (0.75pc), chicken (0.72pc), washing soap (0.59pc), pulse gram (0.34pc), mutton (0.31pc), beef (0.30pc), curd (0.27pc), milk fresh (0.14pc) and wheat flour (0.11pc).

The items whose prices saw a decline week-on-week included tomatoes (13.45pc), potatoes (8.33pc), bananas (5.66pc), onions (2.42pc), diesel (1.57pc), salt powdered (0.90pc), petrol (0.34pc), sugar (0.23pc), mustard oil (0.04pc) and gur (0.01pc).

However, on an annual basis, the items whose prices increased the most were onions (115.98pc), LPG (63.97pc), electricity for Q1 (58.59pc), diesel (51.80pc), petrol (47.49pc), wheat flour (32.41pc), gents sponge chappal (16.69pc), chilli powder (16.37pc), mutton (15.75pc), beef (13.22pc), firewood (10.72pc), bread plain (8.96pc), shirting (8.38pc), washing soap (8.36pc) and milk fresh (8.10pc).

In contrast, the prices of potatoes dropped 39.21pc, followed by sugar (21.14pc), tomatoes (19.81pc), eggs (18.40pc), salt powder (14.73pc), pulse gram (11.65pc), pulse masoor (10.47pc), pulse moong (7.89pc), gur (7.30pc), rice IRRI-6/9 (3.28pc), garlic (3.03pc), chicken (2.51pc) and rice basmati broken (0.33pc).

The index, comprising 51 items collected from 50 markets in 17 cities, is computed weekly to assess the prices of essential commodities and services at shorter intervals.

Data showed that the prices of 20 items increased, 10 decreased, and 21 remained stable compared to the previous week.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2026