Pace of weekly inflation rate accelerates M Haris

The pace of increase in the rate of inflation in Pakistan accelerated again as the inflation, gauged by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), rose 1.30% week-on-week, marking the third consecutive week of increase.

In the previous week, the SPI reading had gone up 0.45%. The year-on-year inflation rose 23.03% in the week ended June 13, 2024 compared to the corresponding week of last year.

In the week under review, prices of 19 essential items including chicken, tomato, eggs, moong pulse, mutton, beef and chickpea increased while prices of eight essential commodities such as flour, sugar, garlic and red chilli powder decreased. Prices of the remaining 24 items in the SPI basket remained stable.

However, the consumers most affected by the inflation fell in the monthly income bracket of Rs22,889 to Rs29,517. The inflation rate for that class surged 26.07%.

According to the latest weekly inflation report released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, tomato prices rose 27.14%, chicken 11.75%, electricity 8.73%, gram pulse 7.19%, liquefied petroleum gas 6.14%, eggs 3.70%, bananas 3.22%, beef 1.52%, moong pulse 1.07%, mutton 0.60%, cigarettes 0.47% and energy savers 0.36%.

On the other hand, prices of onion decreased 5%, chilli powder 1.95%, Basmati rice (broken) 1.65%, garlic 1.32%, Irri rice 1.08%, bread 0.52%, wheat flour 0.05% and sugar 0.02%.