ISLAMABAD, Oct 19: After an increase in diesel and kerosene prices during the week ending on October 18, 2012 the Sensitive Price Index inched up for the lowest income group.

However, due to the decrease in the prices of bananas, chicken and petrol the sensitive price index dropped slightly for the high-end income group during the week under review.

The data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday, suggested that the SPI for the lowest income group earning up to Rs8,000 remained in the red for the second consecutive week ticking up by 0.08 per cent compared to the previous week.

The weekly inflationary impact for income group earning between Rs8,001 and Rs12,000 a month was nominal at 0.04 per cent against the previous week, while the SPI for middle income group earning between Rs12,000 and Rs18,000 per month remained almost flat with an increase of 0.02 per cent.

However, for the upper middle class earning Rs18,001 to Rs35,000 per month the SPI eased by 0.03 per cent over the previous week.

Whereas, the weekly inflation declined by 0.09 per cent for the high-end income group earning more than Rs35,000 per month, and the overall SPI for the combined income group went into negative by 0.03 per cent.

Analysts said that petrol was the preferred fuel for the high-end consumers, besides decline in the prices of cooking oil and bananas have aided the drop in SPI for upper income categories.

During the week under review the prices of 13 items registered a decline including bananas, live farm chicken, petrol, red chillies powdered.

While prices of 15 items registered an increase led by tomatoes as its prices increased by more than 19pc.