Weekly inflation accelerates 0.52pc

The weekly SPI with base year 2015-16=100 covers 17 urban centres and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups.

Out of the 51 examined items, the average price of 18 items increased, 9 items reduced whereas prices 24 items remained constant during the week.

According to the data issued by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday, the SPI rise is mainly attributable to a upsurge in prices of food items i.e. chicken (14.81 per cent), chili powder (9.40 per cent), cooking oil (4.11 per cent), vegetable ghee (3.83 per cent), and mustard oil (1.38 per cent). Among non-food items, washing soap (2.15 per cent) with joint impact of (1.07 per cent) into the overall SPI for combined group of (0.52 per cent).

On the other hand, a decline was witnessed in the rates of tomatoes (29.82 per cent), eggs (8.20 per cent), potatoes (3.37per cent), onions (2.28 per cent), LPG (1.73 per cent), sugar (1.54 per cent), pulse moong (0.68 per cent), bananas (0.32 per cent) and wheat flour (0.07 per cent).