ISLAMABAD, Feb 22: Sensitive Price Indicator climbed further by 0.13 per cent during the week ending Feb 20, 2003 over the previous week due mainly to yet another increase in prices of fossil fuels.
As a result, according to the weekly price statement of the Federal Bureau of Statistics released here on Saturday, the combined SPI moved up to 107.96 for all the four income groups.
The statement, however, shows that the increase in SPI was only in respect of the households in the highest income group with monthly incomes above Rs12,000, that is, by 0.36 per cent.
The other income groups were spared the impact of price spiral and even experienced a rare relief. Thus the SPI dropped by 0.05pc for the lowest income households with incomes up to Rs3000 per month, and by 0.08pc each for the income brackets between Rs3001 and Rs5,000 and between Rs5,001 and Rs12,000.
As compared to the corresponding period of previous year, the SPI increased by 3.28pc.
Again, hike in hydrocarbon energy prices — diesel spiralled by 7.56pc, kerosene by 6.71pc and petrol by 4.68pc — had a major impact on the price situation during the period under review.
Nine other essential items also registered increases to varying degrees in prices as against previous week as follows:
Bananas (1.60pc), potatoes (1.50pc), masoor pulse washed (0.71pc), cooked beef plate (0.63pc), electric bulb 60 watts (0.32pc), mutton (0.23pc), wheat (0.22pc), wheat flour average quality (0.19pc) and chicken farm (0.04pc).
In a rare development, the number of items which underwent decrease in prices during the period under review exceeded that of items which became dearer. Following were the 14 items the prices of which declined:
Tomatoes (11.23pc), egg (farm) (7.51pc). garlic (1.06pc), gram pulse washed (0.99pc), red chilies (powdered) (0.55pc), onions (0.51pc), gur (0.46pc), mash pulse washed (0.41pc), rice basmati broken (0.33pc), mustard oil (0.26pc), coarse latha (0.22pc), vegetable ghee (loose) (0.14pc), LPG (11 kg cylinder) (0.08pc) and moong pulse washed (0.07pc).
There was no change in prices of 27 out of 51 essential items included in SPI basket during the period under review.
The prices of two varieties of chemical fertilizer increased as follows over the previous week: Ammonium sulphate (0.28pc) and sulphate of pot. (0.85pc). These were, however, outnumbered by the fertilizers which saw decrease in prices as follows:
Urea sona (0.14pc), urea kisan (0.07pc), dia ammonium phosphate (0.20pc), nitro phosphate (1.28pc) and C. ammonium nitrate (0.19pc).
According to the FBS data, the price of cement declined further by 0.48 per cent over the previous week. The lowest price of Rs179.25 per bag was recorded in Peshawar. It peaked in Karachi at Rs227 per bag. The average price of cement worked out by FBS on the basis of prices collected in ten cities of Pakistan was Rs 192.45 per bag as against Rs 237.45 during the corresponding period of previous year and Rs 193.37 during the previous week.
The FBS statement also included data about wage rates prevailing during the period under review. It shows increase of 0.62pc in the average wage rate of mason, 0.66pc in carpenter and 0.72% in plumber. In absolute terms, these come to less than one rupee.