Islamabad, Dec 27: The Sensitive Price Index (SPI)-based inflation for the week ending December 26, 2024, rose by 5.08% year-on-year, as reported by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). This increase was primarily driven by significant price hikes in various essential goods, including tomatoes (up 138.53%).
Ladies sandals (75.09%), potatoes (61.17%), pulse gram (51.17%), and pulse moong (31.51%). Other items that saw notable price increases were powdered milk (25.62%), beef (24.28%), garlic (17.27%), gas charges for Q1 (15.52%), cooked daal (15.10%), shirting (14.36%), and firewood (13.14%).
However, some items recorded a significant decline in prices. Wheat flour dropped by 36.20%, onions by 31.21%, and chili powder by 20.00%. Other price reductions included eggs (12.89%), pulse masoor (11.18%), rice basmati broken (7.98%), diesel (7.49%), electricity charges for Q1 (6.96%), pulse mash (6.27%), bread (6.01%), and petrol (5.64%).
On a week-on-week basis, SPI-based inflation rose by 0.80%, primarily due to the price increases in chicken (22.47%), tomatoes (20.75%), sugar (2.19%), and vegetable ghee (1kg) (1.17%). Other items that saw price hikes included firewood (0.95%), vegetable ghee (2.5kg) (0.91%), cooking oil (5 liters) (0.74%), cooked beef and mustard oil (0.69%), LPG (0.18%), and washing soap (0.09%). Out of the 51 items tracked during the week, 17 items (33.33%) experienced price increases, 10 items (19.61%) saw price reductions, and 24 items (47.06%) remained stable in price.
