ISLAMABAD, June 27: The weekly inflation, measured through sensitive price index (SPI), surged by 26.03 per cent during the week ended on June 26 over the corresponding week of last year, Statistics Division said on Friday.

The inflation, however, recorded a marginal increase of 0.13 per cent over the previous week. This surge in the SPI was on the back of an increase in prices of 16 essential daily items. Any increase in petrol price next week may further push up prices of these products.

The SPI data showed that the worst hit were households with Rs3,000 monthly income.

According to the data, the SPI witnessed an increase of 29.74per cent and 28.91 per cent for households in income brackets of up to Rs3,000 and Rs3,001 to Rs5,000, respectively.

For households in the income brackets of Rs5,001 to 12,000, the increase was in the range of 26.72 per cent, and for households in the income basket of over Rs12,000, inflation registered a growth of 23.36 per cent over the week last year.

The prices of tomato rose by 14.29 per cent to Rs15.84 per kg from Rs13.86, potatoes by 4.89 per cent to Rs20.37 per kg from Rs19.42, egg by 3.94 per cent to Rs50.67 per dozen from Rs48.75 and LPG cylinder 11 kg by 3.10 per cent to Rs708.82 each from Rs687.53 during the week under review.

Kerosene price went up by 1.38 per cent to Rs55.78 per litre from Rs55.02, gram pulse washed by 0.72 per cent to Rs59.14 per kg from Rs58.72, wheat flour by 0.67 per cent to Rs22.67 per kg against Rs22.52 and gur by 0.47 per cent to Rs31.93 per kg against Rs31.78.

Tea (prepared) price increased by 0.40 per cent to Rs7.53 per cup from Rs7.40, firewood by 0.25 per cent to Rs239.17 per 40 kg against Rs238.58, masoor washed by 0.20 per cent to Rs112.10 per kg from Rs111.88 and wheat by 0.10 per cent to Rs20.02 per kg from Rs20.

The price of curd was up by 0.10 per cent to Rs40.18 per kg from Rs40.14, garlic by 0.09 per cent to Rs34.065 per kg from Rs34.03, milk fresh by 0.06 per cent to Rs34.18 per kg from Rs34.03 and mash pulse washed by 0.04 per cent to Rs72.63 per kg from Rs72.60.