ISLAMABAD, Oct 10: Weekly inflation measured through sensitive price index (SPI) surged by 30.67 per cent during the week ended on Oct 9 over the corresponding week of last year, Statistics Division said on Friday.

This increase in inflation is driven by food prices, particularly flour and sugar etc during the period under review. The persistent increase in diesel price also propelled transport fares in the past few weeks.

The inflation, however, recorded an increase of 1.48 per cent over the previous week, indicating a rising trend in the prices of these commodities. 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 33.04 per cent and 31.77 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 31.25 per cent, and for households in the income basket of over Rs12, 000 inflation registered a growth of 30.36 per cent over the same week last year.

The prices of wheat rose by 12.98 per cent to Rs27.50 per kg from Rs24.34, wheat flour by 8.41 per cent to Rs24.49 per kg from Rs22.59, sugar by 7.45 per cent to Rs37.66 per kg from Rs35.05 and eggs 5.98 per cent to Rs59.87 per dozen from Rs56.49 during the week under review.

Milk powder Nido went up by 5.47 per cent to Rs170 per kg from Rs161.18, chicken by 3.91 per cent to Rs112.65 per kg from Rs108.41, tea (prepared) 1.87 per cent to Rs8.18 per cup against Rs8.03 and gur by 1.80 per cent to Rs39.05 per kg against Rs38.36.

Potatoes price increased by 1.50 per cent to Rs27.15 per kg from Rs26.75, garlic by 1.43 per cent to Rs46.26 per kg against Rs45.61, bread plain (mid size) by 1.32 per cent to Rs23.09 per kg from Rs22.79 and coarse latha by 0.99 per cent to Rs45.06 per meter from Rs44.62.

The price of mutton was up by 0.69 per cent to Rs254.42 per kg from Rs252.68, milk fresh by 0.48 pc to Rs35.59 per kg from Rs35.42, cooked beef plate by 0.39 per cent to Rs38.92 from Rs38.77 and shirting by 0.39 per cent to Rs78.18 per meter from Rs77.88. Firewood price increased by 0.28 per cent to Rs254.53 per 40 kg from Rs253.82, kerosene 0.15 per cent to Rs74.70 per kg from Rs74.59, and curd by 0.12 per cent to Rs42.46 per kg from Rs42.41.