ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), rose 3.57 per cent year-on-year during the week ending Aug 28, mainly due to a surge in the prices of perishable food items, official data showed on Friday.

The SPI has remained on an upward trajectory for six consecutive weeks. On a week-on-week basis, it increased by 0.62pc, driven by higher prices of tomatoes, onions, potatoes, chicken, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and wheat flour.

Sugar also contributed to the inflationary trend, with its retail price reaching Rs190–200 per kg. The price of meat has also been rising steadily in recent weeks.

The overall pace of inflation has, however, slowed compared to last year because of a higher base effect. Prices of most non-perishable items remained stable, with notable exceptions such as wheat flour and meat.

SPI up for sixth straight week as prices of tomatoes, wheat flour, chicken, sugar surge

During the week under review, items that registered the highest increase included tomatoes (14.98pc), wheat flour (12.11pc), chicken (3.36pc), potatoes (1.52pc), mustard oil (1.37pc), eggs (1.03pc), LPG (0.82pc), cooked beef (0.81pc), garlic (0.78pc), lawn printed (0.23pc), firewood (0.17pc) and long cloth (0.11pc).

Prices declined for pulse mash (0.43pc), pulse masoor and pulse gram (0.28pc each), bananas (0.12pc), vegetable ghee 2.5kg (0.10pc) and onions (0.01pc).

On a year-on-year basis, the steepest increases were recorded in ladies’ sandals (55.62pc), gas charges for Q1 (29.85pc), sugar (26.91pc), beef (12.99pc), gur (12.18pc), bananas (11.78pc), pulse moong (11.74pc), firewood (11.47pc), vegetable ghee 2.5kg (11.36pc), vegetable ghee 1kg (10.89pc), cooked beef (8.93pc) and lawn printed (7.64pc).

Conversely, onions became cheaper by 49.31pc, followed by garlic (25.98pc), pulse mash (23.39pc), potatoes (19.96pc), pulse gram (18.54pc), electricity charges for Q1 (18.12pc), branded tea (17.93pc), pulse masoor (7.05pc), rice IRRI-6/9 (5.47pc) and LPG (3.70pc).

The SPI — based on 51 essential items collected from 50 markets in 17 cities — showed that prices of 18 items increased, six declined and 27 remained unchanged compared to the previous week.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2025