Surge in inflation: Prices of essential food items skyrocket

The weekly inflation, based on the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), for the week ended August 26 registered a meagre gain of 0.22% for the combined income group going up from 151.80 points during the week ended August 19, 2021 to 152.14 points in the week under review.

According to the provisional figures released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the average prices of 22 essential items, including chicken, onions, garlic, eggs, cooking oil, mustard oil, vegetable ghee, pulse mash, fresh milk, sugar refined and wheat flour rose were selected in a basket of goods. Prices of five items, including tomatoes, potatoes and LPG 11.67 kg cylinder declined. Meanwhile, the rates of 24 essential goods recorded no change.

During the week under review, prices of chicken went up by 9.52%, pulse masoor 9.32%, onions 7.55%, garlic 5.21%, eggs 2.86%, vegetable 1kg ghee 1.8% and cooking oil 0.86%. However, prices of tomatoes declined by 29.88%, followed by LPG 2.63% and potatoes 2.11%.

On a year-on-year basis, the inflation based on the SPI increased 12.67%. The SPI for the lowest income group increased 0.20% compared to the previous week. The index for the group stood at 163.94 points against 163.62 points in the previous week.