Elevated food, fuel prices push weekly inflation up by 1.35%

ISLAMABAD: Pakistanis continued to suffer in the holy month of Ramadan as weekly inflation soared by 1.35% in the week ending on March 14 due to hike in prices of food items and fuel, The News reported Saturday. As per the data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBC), sensitive price indicator (SPI) inflation has been increasing in the past month, reaching at 32.89% year-on-year during the reviewed week. The index, which tracks 51 items, showed that 18 items became more expensive, 10 got cheaper, and 23 remained unchanged.The prices of tomatoes increased by 21.96%, bananas by 21.76%, eggs by 7.15%, onions by 5.6%, LPG by 4.45%, garlic by 3.6%, mutton by 1.7%, beef by 1.5%, and chicken by 1.4%.Meanwhile, cooking oil (5 litre), vegetable ghee (2.5 Kg), and wheat flour saw a 1% decrease in their prices. The prices of sugar fell by 0.64%, gur by 0.57%, rice (basmati broken) by 0.50%, pulse masoor by 0.17% and pulse mash by 0.15% over the previous week.Meanwhile, the SPI percentage change by income groups showed that SPI decreased across all three quantiles, while it increased across two quantiles.For the lowest income groups earning up to Rs17,732 per month, the SPI increased by 27.83% while it recorded an increase of 28.9% for highest income groups with salaries over Rs44,175 per month. According to the SPI, the prices of gas charges for Q1 increased by 570% year-on-year basis, tomatoes by 186%, onions by 90%, chili powder by 82%, gents’ sponge chappal by 58%, gents’ sandal by 53%, wheat flour by 52%, gur by 41%, sugar by 37% and salt powder by 35% over the last year. Meanwhile the prices of cooking oil (5 litre) fell by 21%, vegetable ghee (1 Kg) by 19%, vegetable ghee (2.5 Kg) by 18%, mustard oil by 15% and bananas by 4%.