Kitchen items’ prices ease as SPI goes down by 0.11 per cent

ISLAMABAD, January 28: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) based weekly inflation for the week ended on January 27, for the combined consumption group, witnessed decrease of 0.11 percent as compared to the previous week, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported Friday.
The SPI for the week under review in the above mentioned group was recorded at 167.11 points against 167.29 points registered in the previous week, according to the PBS data. The food commodities that contributed in decline in weekly inflation included chillies and potatoes, the prices of which decreased by 9.05 percent and 4.03  percent respectively on Week-on-Week basis.
Other commodities that witnessed decline in prices included onions (2.86%), eggs (2.19%), chicken (1.71%), sugar (1.14%), bananas (0.61%), and LPG (2.04%) On Year-on-Year basis, the commodities that witnessed decrease in prices pulse Moong (26.41%), chillies powdered (22.44%), chicken (11.19%) and onions (2.06%).
Meanwhile, the commodities that witnessed increase on WoW basis, included tomatoes (30.79%), garlic (4.51%), tea prepared (1.71%), mustard oil (1.28%) and pulse gram (1.18%) and cooking oil 5 litre (1.18%).
The items that witnessed increase in prices on YoY basis included electricity for Q1 (81.39%), tomatoes (75.11%), LPG (51.90%), gents sponge chappal (50.25%), mustard oil (46.14%), cooking oil 5 litre (45.61%), gents sandal (44.49%), washing soap (41.74%), vegetable ghee 1 kg (41.11%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (40.80%) and pulse masoor (38.78%)
Meanwhile, 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 18.62 percent. The Sensitive Price Indicator for the lowest consumption group up to Rs17,732 witnessed 0.07 percent decrease and went down to 175.29 this week from 1175.41 points in last week.
Likewise, the SPI for the consumption groups from Rs17,732-22,888; Rs22,889-29,517; Rs29,518-44,175 and above Rs 44,175 also decreased by 0.05 percent, 0.07 percent, 0.09 percent and 0.12 percent respectively. During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 17 (33.33%) items increased, 08 (15.69%) items decreased and 26 (50.98%) items remained stable. It is pertinent to mention here that the weekly SPI with base year 2015-16=100 is covering 17 urban centers and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups. -DNA