The cost of necessities has recently showed a diverse pattern in Pakistan. Prices for potatoes, onions, and tomatoes increased every week, but those for basmati rice and dal masoor decreased.
The Sensitive Price Index (SPI) for the week ending June 20, as reported by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, showed price declines for five important products while prices for 21 remained steady.
On the other hand, over the same time frame, 25 commodities saw price increases. Diesel had a decrease in price of 0.84%, chicken by 0.05%, basmati rice and dal masoor by 0.08%, and petrol by 3.76%.In contrast, prices increased by 65.84% for tomatoes, 5.61% for potatoes, 3.78% for onions, 3.29% for bananas, and 2.44% for LPG. Other increases were seen in the prices of garlic (1.29%), lentils (1.53%), and cigarettes (1.67%). resh milk by 0.95%, and eggs by 0.83%.
The SPI, which monitors price changes for 51 necessities in 50 markets in 17 major cities, revealed a weekly price increase of 0.94% overall and a 23.78% increase from the prior year.
Consumers in all income groups are impacted by these variations; the lowest income group sees an increase in the SPI of 1.58%.
