ISLAMABAD, April 21: The Sensitive Price Index (SPI) increased by 0.27 per cent during the week ending April 20, 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 26 items recorded an increase during the week under review for all income groups because of an increase in prices of onion, ghee, rice, red chillies and other essential products.

The group-wise analysis of price behaviour of 53 essential items in the 17 towns of the country showed that the SPI witnessed an increase of 0.42 per cent and 0.39 per cent for households in the income bracket of up to Rs3,000 and Rs3,001-5,000 respectively.

For the households with Rs5,001-12,000 monthly income, the increase in the SPI was in the range of 0.31 per cent, while for the households above Rs12,000, the inflation registered a growth of 0.16pc over the previous week.

The SPI registered an increase of 7.43 per cent during the week under review over the previous week.

Around 26 items registered increase in prices during the week under review. The price of onions rose by 5.05pc to Rs13.11 per kg as against Rs12.48 and red chillies up by 4.34pc to Rs112.06 per kg as against Rs107.40 the previous week.

The price of vegetable ghee (loose) increased by 3.42pc to Rs79.63 per kg from Rs77, lawn 3.39pc to Rs82.59 per metre as against Rs79.88, 1.78pc in rice basmati broken to Rs26.29 per kg as against Rs25.83, bath soap Lifebouy 1.62pc to Rs14.47 per cake from Rs14.24; chicken farm 1.34pc to Rs80.22 per kg as against Rs79.16, shirting 0.91pc to Rs65.73 per metre as against Rs65.14, tomatoes 0.88pc to Rs17.13 per kg as against Rs16.98.

The price of bananas increased by 0.77pc to Rs34.06 per dozen as against Rs33.80, washing soap nylon 0.74pc to Rs8.15 per cake as against Rs8.09, sugar 0.70pc to Rs30.30 per kg as against Rs30.09, voil printed by 0.52pc to Rs38.43 per metre as against Rs38.23, curd 0.44pc to Rs31.86 per kg as against Rs31.72, moong pulse washed 0.36pc to Rs55.27 per kg as against Rs55.07, cooked dal plate 0.33pc to Rs18.12 per plate as against Rs18.06, massor pulse washed 0.30pc to Rs46.27 per kg as against Rs46.13.

The price of milk fresh rose by 0.29pc to Rs27.33 per kg as against Rs27.25, mutton 0.25pc to Rs228.44 per kg as against Rs227.86, mash pulse washed 0.22pc Rs71.78 per kg as against Rs71.62, milk powdered Nido 0.10pc to Rs134.85 per 400-g, gram pulse washed 0.05pc to Rs38.76 per kg as against Rs38.74, cooking oil tin 0.05pc to Rs241.29 per 2.5 litre as against Rs241.17, firewood 0.05pc to Rs200.88 per 40 kg as against Rs200.78, LPG cylinder 0.05pc to Rs589.29 as against Rs589 and mustard oil 0.04pc to Rs83.81 per kg as against Rs83.78.