ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), increased 5.05 per cent year-on-year in the week ending Oct 30, owing to an increase in the retail price of perishable food products in the domestic market.

The SPI-based inflation recorded an upward trend for the past 13 consecutive weeks. The increase is mainly driven by a surge in prices of perishable products, including onions, tomatoes, potatoes, wheat flour as well as edible oil.

It, however, rose 0.12pc from the previous week, data showed on Friday.

The prices of tomatoes, onions and potatoes saw an increase owing to disruption in supply due to closure of the border with Afghanistan. The extraordinary spike in the retail prices of sugar, and meat also contributed in reversing the trend during the past weeks under review.

The retail price of sugar in the market reached to Rs180 to Rs200 per kg. The price of meat is steadily on the rise in the past few weeks.

The items whose prices increased the most over the previous week included onions (59.54pc), eggs (3.24pc), chicken (2.40pc), garlic (1.72pc), firewood (0.93pc), cooking oil 5-litre (0.64pc), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (0.40pc), wheat flour (0.36pc) and powdered milk (0.22pc).

The items whose prices saw a decline week-on-week included tomatoes (47.02pc), pulse gram (1.66pc), pulse masoor (1.20pc), pulse moong (0.65pc), gur (0.56pc), potatoes (0.23pc), pulse mash (0.14pc) and rice IRRI-6/9 (0.12pc).

However, on an annual basis, the items whose prices increased the most included ladies’ sandals (55.62p), sugar (42.44p), tomatoes (31.56pc), gas charges for Q1 (29.85pc), onions (19.98pc), wheat flour (19.23pc), gur (18.41pc), beef (13.42pc), firewood (12.51pc), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (12.34pc).

In contrast, the prices of garlic dropped 30.74pc, followed by pulse gram (29.12pc), electricity charges for Q1 (26.26pc), potatoes (20.07pc), tea lipton (17.93pc), pulse mash (15.87pc), chicken (15.63pc), LPG (5.93pc), pulse masoor (4.68pc) and rice IRRI-6/9 (3.36pc).

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2025