ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price In­­dex (SPI), continued year-on-year downward trajectory, slowing to 17.96 per cent during the week ending Aug 8, official data showed on Friday.

On a week-on-week ba­­sis, SPI saw an increase of 0.30pc mainly due to inc­r­ease in the prices of items like onions and pu­­lses. However, the prices of whe­at flour, tomatoes, su­­gar and chilli powder rec­orded a slight decrease.

The weekly inflation hit a record 48.35pc year-on-year in early May 2023, but then decelerated as low as 24.4pc in late August 2023 before surging past 40pc in mid-November. The last reading above 40pc was witnessed in late January.

During the past week, the items whose prices increased week-on-week included onions (32.23pc), eggs (4.28pc), garlic (3.23pc), LPG (1.73pc), ge­­orgette (1.32pc), pulse mash (0.97pc), pulse gram (0.95pc), pulse moong (0.83pc), potatoes (0.70pc), firewood (0.56pc), chi­ck­­en (0.52pc) and cigarettes (0.09pc).

On an annual basis, the items whose prices decr­e­ased the most included gas charges (570pc), tom­a­toes (19.12pc), bananas (1.55pc), wheat flour (1.39pc), chilies powder (1.31pc), pulse masoor (0.68pc), sugar (0.44pc) and bread (0.02pc).

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2024