ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation, measured by Sensitive Price Index (SPI), slightly eased to 12.72 per cent in the week ending September 19, owing to a decline in prices of perishable items and petroleum products.

The SPI inflation reversed to a modest decline after a one-week increase. It declined by 0.52pc from the previous week, official data showed on Friday.

The downward trend in short-term inflation is due to a decline in prices of perishable food items such as tomatoes, onions and chicken, and those of diesel and petrol.

The weekly inflation hit a record 48.35pc year-on-year in early May 2023. It then decelerated as low as 24.4pc in late August 2023 before surging past 40pc during the week ending Nov 16, 2023.

The items whose prices saw the decline week-on-week included diesel (5pc), onions (4.45pc), petrol (3.88pc), tomatoes (1.93pc), sugar (0.70pc), potatoes and LPG (0.57pc) each, cooking oil 5-litre (0.45pc), pulse moong (0.44pc), pulse masoor (0.30pc), cigarettes (0.25pc) and pulse mash (0.24pc).

The items whose prices increased the most over the previous week included chicken (1.49pc), pulse gram (0.83pc), cooked daal (0.81pc), shirting (0.74pc), cooked beef (0.72pc), eggs (0.69pc), garlic (0.65pc), gur (0.59pc) and georgette (0.50pc).

However, on an annual basis, the items whose prices increased the most included gas charges for Q1 (570pc), onions (74.62pc), pulse gram (57.34pc), powdered milk (25.45pc), beef (25.31pc), shirting (20.17pc), tomatoes (17.98pc), pulse moong (16.41pc), cooked daal (15.65pc), salt powder (15.38pc), georgette (13.78pc) and energy saver (12.87pc).

In contrast, the prices of wheat flour dropped 38.14pc, followed by petrol (24.73pc), diesel (24.06pc), chilies powder (20pc), electricity charges for Q1 (13.47pc), sugar (11.42pc), cooking oil 5 litre (11.13pc), rice basmati broken (9.96pc), pulse masoor (8.63pc), gur (7.68pc), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (6.43pc) and LPG (2.47pc).

The index, comprising 51 items collected from 50 markets in 17 cities, is computed weekly to assess the prices of essential commodities and services at shorter intervals. Data showed that the prices of 17 items increased, 15 decreased and those of 19 items remained stable compared to the previous week.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2024