ISLAMABAD, May 18: Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) increased by 0.10 per cent during the week ending May 16 with the rise in prices of 16 essential items as compared to the preceding week, according to the data released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics here on Saturday.
The items that registered sharp rise during the week under review included tomatoes, kerosene, petrol and farm chicken over the previous week.
SPI with 2000-01 as the new base year stood at 103.78 at the end of week reflecting the impact of changes in prices of 51 essential items in 17 cities of Pakistan. When compared with corresponding week of previous year, SPI soared by 3.78 per cent during the week under review.
The FBS data, however, showed decrease in index for the lowest income people with incomes up to Rs3,000 and those with incomes between Rs3,001 and Rs5,000 per month. For them the SPI registered a decrease of 0.06 per cent over the preceding week.
The impact of price spiral on the overall SPI was tampered by the decrease in prices of ten essential items which explains the relative relief for low-income households.
The items which saw an increase in prices over the previous week included:
Rice basmati (broken) (0.43pc), Masoor pulse washed (0.08pc), beef (0.25pc), mutton (0.6pc), gur (0.15pc), curd (0.09pc), cooking oil (Habib) (0.16pc), tomatoes (19.05pc), bananas (1.75pc), garlic (0.09pc), cooked dal plate (0.94pc), lawn (0.07pc), voile printed (0.03pc), kerosene (8.83pc), chicken farm (4.13pc), and petrol (4.58pc).
The prices of following items decreased during the week under review compared to previous week:
Wheat flour (average quality) (0.43pc), rice irri-6 (0.51pc), mash pulse washed (0.87pc), gram pulse washed (0.06pc), egg (farm) (3.31pc), sugar (0.46pc), mustard oil (0.43pc), mustard oil (2.07pc), onion (8.18pc), and red chilies powder (1.92pc).
According to the FBS data, the prices of chemical fertilizers decreased by 2.51pc over the previous week. However, these prices had soared by 11.27pc when compared with the last year. The prices of cement were also up by 0.23pc over the previous week but down 0.73pc from the corresponding week of previous year.