ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation, measured by Sensitive Price Index (SPI), went up to 4.64 per cent year-on-year in the week ending December 19 owing to an increase in the prices of edible oil and essential kitchen items.

The SPI-based inflation reversed to a modest increase for a second week consecutively.

It increased by 0.38pc from the previous week, official data showed on Friday.

The slight increase on a week-on-week basis is due to an increase in the prices of vegetable ghee, cooking oil and tomatoes. The increase continues in perishable food products and energy products like LPG.

Edible oil manufacturers raised their prices in recent weeks. Similarly, the retail prices of tomatoes and onions increased drastically last week.

The government had slightly increased the petrol price in the last review. This will also have an impact on transportation charges as well as prices of vegetables and fruits.

In March, the decline in SPI came after a consistent 11-week period of inflation above 40pc, surging from 29pc recorded on Nov 8, 2023. 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 during the week ending Nov 16, 2023.

The items whose prices saw an increase week-on-week included tomatoes (56.66pc), firewood (1.57pc), garlic (1.40pc), vegetable ghee 2.5kg (0.95pc), cooking oil 5-litre (0.79pc), mustard oil (0.74pc), LPG (0.71pc), gur (0.28pc), vegetable ghee 1kg (0.25pc), sugar (0.23pc), georgette (0.13pc) and long cloth (0.10pc).

The items whose prices decreased the most over the previous week included onions (4.16pc), potatoes (3.83pc), eggs (2.72pc), diesel (1.17pc), pulse gram (0.98pc), wheat flour (0.76pc), bananas (0.56pc), and rice basmati broken and pulse moong (0.27pc) each.

However, on an annual basis, the items whose prices increased the most included tomatoes (95.54pc), ladies sandal (75.09pc), pulse gram (56.75pc), potatoes (50.81pc), pulse moong (34.88pc), powdered milk (25.62pc), beef (23.84pc), garlic (17.13pc), gas charges for Q1 (15.52pc), cooked daal (15.08pc), shirting (14.36pc) and firewood (12.43pc).

In contrast, the prices of wheat flour dropped 36.15pc, followed by chilies po­­w­der (20pc), onions (13.74pc), eggs (12.98pc), pulse masoor (10.64pc), rice basmati broken (7.62pc), diesel (7.49pc), electricity charges for Q1 (6.96pc), bread (6.01pc), petrol (5.64pc) and sugar (5.20pc).

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 15 items increased, 13 dec­­­re­ased and those of 23 items remained stable compared to the previous week.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2024