ISLAMABAD, Sep 23 (ABC): The prices of essential commodities witnessed a considerable decrease as the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based weekly inflation for the week ended on September 22 for the combined consumption group witnessed a sharp decline of 8.11 percent as compared to the previous week. The SPI for the week under review in the above mentioned group was recorded at 203.21 points against 221.14 points registered in the previous week, according to the latest data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) released here on Friday. As compared to the corresponding week of last year, the SPI for the combined consumption group in the week under review witnessed an increase of 29.28 percent.
The weekly SPI with base year 2015-16 =100 is covering 17 urban centers and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups. The SPI for the lowest consumption group up to Rs 17,732 witnessed 8.45 percent decrease and went down to 205.98 points from last week’s 224.98 points. Meanwhile, the SPI for the consumption groups from Rs 17,732-22,888; Rs 22,889-29,517; Rs 29,518-44,175 and above Rs 44,175 decreased by 11.91 percent, 8.02 percent, 6.07 percent and 4.08 percent respectively. During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 26 (50.98%) items increased, 10 (19.61%) items decreased and 15 (29.41%) items remained stable. The items which recorded decrease in their average prices on WoW basis included tomatoes (8.15%), bananas (1.90%), garlic (1.31%), pulse masoor (0.99%), cooking oil 5 litre (0.78%), onions (0.46%), vegetable ghee 2.5kg (0.34%), vegetable ghee 1kg (0.06%), electricity for Q1 (64.23%) and LPG (3.82%).
The commodities which recorded increase in their average prices included tea packet (6.30%), wheat flour (22.47%), tea packet (6.42%), chicken (4.52%), pulse gram (2.54%), bread (2.36%), cigarettes (1.82%), rice basmati broken (1.51%), potatoes (1.45%), pulse moong (1.31%) and rice Irri 6/9 (1.07%). On year-on-year basis, the commodities that witnessed decrease in prices included electricity for Q1 (45.61%), chillies powder (43.05%), sugar (19.20%) and gur (3.37%). The commodities that witnessed increase in prices on YoY basis included tomatoes (117.55%), diesel (105.12%), petrol (91.87%), pulse masoor (75.38%), pulse gram (73.55%), mustard oil (65.64%), cooking oil 5 litre (63.63%), washing soap (61.50%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (59.42%), pulse mash (56.93%), vegetable ghee 1 kg (56.09%), onions (50.83%) and LPG (49.89%).