ISLAMABAD, Sept 7: Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the poorest households with monthly incomes up to Rs3,000 surged further by 0.12 per cent during the week ending September 5, as compared to previous week.

According to the weekly statement released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics here on Saturday, the average prices of as many as 17 out of 51 items included in SPI basket spiralled during the week under review.

The SPI for the lower middle class including households with incomes in the Rs3,001-5,000 range went up by 0.8 per cent and for those with incomes between Rs5,001 and Rs12,000 by 0.4 per cent. It increased by 0.6 per cent for the highest income households with incomes above Rs12,000.

The combined SPI for all the income strata moved up by 0.5 per cent over the previous week and by 4.91 per cent as compared to corresponding week of previous year. At the end of the week, it stood at 107.99. The index for the lowest income group increased to 107.75.

A silver screen in the scenario of relentless spiral of prices of basic necessities of life was 14.18 per cent decline in the rates of tomatoes based on prices data collected in 17 towns. But it was a seasonal occurrence.

Together with farm chicken, whose prices fell by a further 3.77 per cent, the price decreases tampered the acceleration of SPI.

The five other items which underwent some price decline during the week under review from previous week were:

Lawn (1.23 per cent), voile printed (0.84 per cent), potatoes (0.71 per cent), vegetable ghee loose (0.11 per cent) and moong pulse washed (0.09 per cent).

Highest increase was recorded in the rates of onions (4.71 per cent). The 16 other items which became more expensive during the week under review as against previous week included:

Kerosene oil (3.56 per cent), petrol (1.15 per cent), bread plain medium size (1.09 per cent), wheat (0.95 per cent), garlic (0.86 per cent), wheat flour average quality (0.60 per cent), sugar (0.54 per cent), rice irri-6 (0.48 per cent), bananas (0.45 per cent), rice basmati broken (0.40 per cent), vegetable ghee (tin) and cooking oil (tin) (0.30 per cent each), mash pulse washed (0.20 per cent), egg (farm) (0.19 per cent), gram pulse washed (0.12 per cent) and red chilies powdered (0.05 per cent).

Diesel also became more expensive by 1.98 per cent with cascading effect on all the other items. The prices of cement increased by 0.38 per cent.

After a relative calm over the previous several weeks, fertilizers too became restive, as prices of five kinds of fertilizers spurted, while those of four declined.