Pakistan’s weekly inflation up 0.2% in third week of October
Index went up mainly due to increase in prices of onions, eggs, sugar, and firewood
Business Desk
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On a year-on-year basis, the Sensitive Price Indicator increased 5.03% mainly due to an increase in the prices of tomatoes and sugar
Pakistan’s weekly inflation rate increased marginally by 0.22% in the week that ended on October 23, according to official data.
The inflation was pushed upwards mainly due to an increase in the prices of food items like onions, eggs, sugar, and non-food items like energy savers and firewood.
On a year-on-year basis, the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) increased 5.03%, pushed up mainly due to an increase in the prices of tomatoes (120.94%), sugar (40.82%), gas (29.85%), wheat flour (18.28%), and beef (13.48%).
Meanwhile, the prices of garlic declined by 29.90%, pulse gram by 28.23%, chicken by 26.32%, electricity charges by 26.26%, onions by 26.06%, and potatoes by 19.65%.
SPI is computed every week to assess the price movement of essential commodities. It comprises 51 essential items collected from 50 markets in 17 cities of the country.
Pakistan’s monthly inflation clocked at 5.6% in September, lower than the expectation as most of the analysts were expecting the rate to be in the range of 6% to 7%.
Prices change
According to the data, on a week-on-week basis, the price of onions per kg increased by PKR 5.81 to PKR 109.12, energy saver increased by PKR 9.74 to PKR 397.24, a dozen eggs by PKR 7.81 to PKR 336.34, refined sugar per kg by PKR 3.77 to PKR 188.81, firewood 40 Kg by PKR 15.99 to PKR, garlic per kg by PKR 3.84 to PKR 417.21, and a dozen bananas by PKR 1 to PKR 123.12.
The largest decrease week on week was registered in the prices of broiler chicken (PKR 8.24), rice per kg (PKR 1.89), pulse moong per kg (PKR 2.48), LPG cylinder 11.67 kg (PKR 3.78), and wheat flour 20kg (PKR 0.14).
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has estimated that Pakistan’s inflation is expected to increase due to flood-related disruptions.
Last week, the Fund allowed Pakistan to revise its tax revenue target downward by PKR 166 billion due to PKR 80 billion loss caused by recent floods, which severely disrupted economic activity in the affected regions, and a PKR 86 billion shortfall resulting from lower-than-expected inflation during the first quarter (July-September) of the current fiscal year.
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