ISLAMABAD: The prices of various food items went down during the week ending on March 3 as compared to the previous week, according to the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) here Friday.
According to the data, the commodities that witnessed decrease in prices on Week-on-Week (WoW) basis included tomatoes and eggs, the prices of which declined by 27.06 percent and 7.18 percent respectively.
Other products that witnessed decrease in prices included , diesel (6.43%), petrol (6.23%), garlic (3.27%), pulse Moong (0.96%), pulse Masoor (0.69%), onions (0.40%), wheat flour (0.35%), sugar (0.27%), potatoes (0.20%), pulse mash (0.16%) and gur (0.10%).
On Year-on-Year (YoY) basis, the commodities that witnessed decrease in prices during the week compared to corresponding week of last year included chillies powdered (36.30%), pulse Moong (30.23%), eggs (8.70%), sugar (8.19%), potatoes (7.38%) and onions (6.49%).
On the other hand, the items that witnessed increase in prices on WoW basis included, chicken (10.47%), bananas (7.06%), vegetable ghee 1 kg (4.08%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (3.69%), mustard oil (2.98%), cooking oil 5 liter (2.19%), powdered milk (1.11%), LPG (9.45%) and georgette (1.06%).
On YoY basis, the commodities that witnessed increase in prices included tomatoes (241.95%), LPG (71.48%), garlic (57.88%), mustard oil (53.22%), cooking oil 5 litre (44.91%), vegetable ghee 1 kg (44.00%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (43.21%), washing soap (36.95%), pulse Masoor (34.81%), petrol (33.42%), beef (25.05%) and diesel (23.75%),
During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 19 (37.25%) items increased, 13 (25.50%) items decreased and 19 (37.25%) items remained stable.
The overall SPI based weekly inflation for the week ended on March 3 witnessed nominal increase of 0.04 per cent for the combined income group as compared to the previous week.
The SPI for the week under review in the above mentioned group was recorded at 170.53 points against 170.47 points registered in the previous week.
The weekly SPI with base year 2015-16=100 is covering 17 urban centers and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups.
The Sensitive Price Indicator for the lowest consumption group up to Rs17,732 witnessed 0.12 percent increase and went up from 177.88 points in last week to 178.10 points during the week under review.
Meanwhile, the SPI for the consumption groups from Rs17,732-22,888; Rs22,889-29,517 and Rs29,518-44,175 increased by 0.09 percent, 0.13 percent and 0.10 percent respectively whereas the SPI for consumption group above Rs44,175 declined by 0.03 percent
Source : Pakistan Bureau Of Statistics.
