ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), rose 13.18 per cent in the week ending October 3 owing to an increase in the prices of perishable vegetables.

The SPI-based inflation reversed to a modest increase for the second consecutive week after a one-week decline. It increased by 0.44pc from the preceding week, official data showed on Friday.

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 Aug 2023 before surging past 40pc during the week ending on Nov 16, 2023.

The items whose prices saw the increase week-on-week included tomatoes (18.51pc), onions (5.89pc), chicken (3.72pc), wheat flour (3.63pc), garlic (2.47pc), pulse gram (1.41pc), LPG (0.98pc), matchbox (0.97pc), pulse moong (0.92pc), mustard oil (0.58pc), firewood (0.51pc) and cigarettes (0.10pc).

The items whose prices declined the most over the previous week included eggs (1.45pc), sugar (1.39pc), diesel (1.32pc), bananas (1.29pc), potatoes (1.08pc), petrol (0.81pc), pulse mash (0.80pc), gur (0.59pc), rice basmati broken (0.53pc) and pulse masoor (0.38pc).

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However, on an annual basis, the items whose prices increased the most included gas charges for Q1 (570pc), pulse gram (65.33pc), onions (43.49pc), tomatoes (41.58pc), powdered milk (25.36pc), beef (24.97pc), chicken (24.90pc), shirting (20.17pc), pulse moong (16.29pc), salt powder (15.38pc), georgette (13.81pc) and energy saver (12.87pc).

In contrast, the prices of wheat flour dropped 35.67pc followed by petrol (23.51pc), diesel (22.48pc), chillies powder (20pc), electricity charges for Q1 (13.47pc), sugar (12.65pc), cooking oil 5-litre (10.74pc), rice basmati broken (10.34pc), pulse masoor (7.90pc), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (6.04pc), gur (5.66pc) and LPG (3.94pc).

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2024