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Inflation for the week ending Sept. 22 decreased by 8.11 percent week-on-week, with the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) crediting the development on a decline in food prices, including tomatoes and onions, and electricity charges.
Issued on Friday, the PBS report notes that while the Sensitive Price Index (SPI)—which measures the price movement of 51 essential commodities on a weekly basis—declined by 8.11 percent week-on-week, overall inflation compared to a year earlier was still at 29.28 percent. While still significant, this is a marked downturn from recent weeks, when year-on-year inflation had soared to a record-breaking 45.5 percent at the start of this month, primarily due to a massive uptick in prices of food items following devastating floods that had hampered connectivity and resulted in shortages of several vegetables and fruits.
The government, earlier this month, decided to import vegetables from Iran and Afghanistan, which has reduced the shortages and is now bringing overall prices down gradually. However, observers have warned, food needs would expand further in the coming weeks as flood-hit areas move from the rescue phase to recovery.
According to the PBS, the prices of 26 monitored items increased in the past week; 10 decreased; and 15 remained stable. It said the prices of tomatoes decreased by 8.15%; bananas 1.9%; garlic 1.3%; pulse masoor 0.99%; 5 liters of cooking oil 0.78%; onions 0.46%; 2.5kg of vegetable ghee 0.34%; and 1kg of vegetable ghee 0.06%. In non-food items, the PBS stated electricity prices for the first quarter decreased by 64.23% and LPG by 3.82%.
Among the items whose prices increased were wheat flour by 22.47%; Lipton tea 6.42%; chicken 4.52%; pulse gram 2.54%; bread 2.36%; basmati broken rice 1.51%; potatoes 1.45%; pulse moong 1.31%; rice 1.07%; and cigarettes by 1.82%.