ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation rose by 11.38 per cent year-on-year in the week ending Oct 15, driven largely by higher food prices, according to official data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on Friday.
Of the 51 essential items monitored during the week, prices of 23 commodities increased, while seven declined, the data showed. Meanwhile, the prices of 21 items remained unchanged from the previous week.
Short-term inflation has remained in double digits for several consecutive weeks, largely due to persistent increases in petroleum prices.
The Sensitive Price Index (SPI), which tracks short-term inflation, slightly fell 0.04pc week-on-week, reflecting price fluctuations in both food and non-food items.
Unwilling to ease the petroleum levy, the government has continued to raise petrol and diesel prices daily. The surge in energy costs is not only fuelling inflationary pressures but also indirectly boosting sales tax collections through higher prices of goods and services.
This is cost-push inflation, in which rising energy costs are followed by increases in food prices. As a result, households are under pressure from higher consumer prices.
The items whose prices increased the most over the previous week included pulse gram (4.97pc), wheat flour (3.36pc), chicken (3.31pc), eggs (0.99pc), pulse mash (0.98pc), pulse masoor (0.95pc), firewood (0.69pc), shirting (0.58pc), cooked daal (0.55pc), diesel (0.47pc), LPG (0.42pc) and tea prepared (0.28pc).
The items whose prices declined week-on-week included tomatoes (23.05pc), onions (4.90pc), bananas (2.59pc), petrol (0.70pc), rice basmati broken (0.65pc), sugar (0.62pc) and gur (0.36pc).
On an annual basis, the items that recorded the highest price increases included onions (75.19pc), LPG (68.95pc), electricity for Q1 (58.59pc), petrol (49.60pc), diesel (43.98pc), wheat flour (35.13pc), chicken (20.77pc), chilies powder (15.55pc), mutton (14.90pc), beef (12.27pc), bread plain (9.02pc) and tea prepared (8.36pc).
In contrast, tomatoe prices fell by 63.65pc, followed by potatoes (39.93pc), sugar (23.20pc), eggs (19.83pc), salt powder (14.86pc), pulse masoor (8.97pc), gur (8.92pc) and pulse moong (7.83pc).
Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2026
