ISLAMABAD, Nov 4: The Sensitive Price Index (SPI) decreased by 0.52pc during the week ending November 2, 2006 over the previous week, according to the weekly price data released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) here on Saturday.

The data indicated that the individual prices of around 23 items recorded an increase during the week under review for all income groups because of an increase in prices of onion, potatoes, chicken, and some other essential products.

The group-wise analysis of the behaviour of prices of 53 essential items prevailing in 17 towns of Pakistan shows that the SPI witnessed an decrease of 0.28pc and 0.36pc, respectively, for households in the two lower income brackets (up to Rs3,000 and Rs3,001-5,000).

For the households in income brackets Rs5,001-12,000, the increase in the SPI was in the range of 0.47pc, while for the households in the income group basket of over Rs12,000, the inflation registered a growth of 0.55pc over the previous week.

Comparing with the corresponding week last year, the SPI registered an increase of 10.33pc during the period under review.

According to data, prices of 23 items went up during the period under review as compared to the previous week. These were: Eggs (4.62pc), milk powder (Nido) (4.47pc), red chillies (3.38pc), wheat flour (2.74pc), sugar (2.23pc), match box (1.49pc), rice basmati broken (1.32pc), salt powder (1.05pc), beef (1.04pc), vegetable ghee loose (0.91pc cent), masoor pulse washed (0.88pc), tea packet (0.64pc), garlic (0.60pc), gram pulse washed (0.58pc), bread (mid size) (0.39pc), milk fresh (0.38pc), firewood (0.31pc), mutton (0.26pc), wheat (0.25pc), cooked beef plate (0.17pc), bath soap (lifebuoy) (0.07pc), vegetable ghee tin (0.01pc), and cooking oil (0.01pc).

The week under report also saw decrease in average prices of 10 essential items. These included: Tomatoes (32.95pc), onion (13.86pc), chicken farm (9.06pc), moong pulse washed (4.84pc), bananas (2.54pc), gur (1.60pc), potatoes (0.76pc), mash pulse washed (0.59pc), LPG cylinder (0.36pc) and mustard oil (0.04pc).