MM News

Inflation in the last week surged by 3.73% — the highest in nine months — bringing the annual rate to a record high of 29.21%, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Thursday, highlighting the severity of the current economic situation in the country.

According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data issued on Friday, the increase in the sensitive price indicator (SPI) was attributed to the increase in the prices of chili powder (28.98%), electricity for Q1 (20.98%), tomatoes (19.71%), eggs (4.77%), LPG (4.12%), garlic (3.09%), onions (2.58%), gur (2.18%), and potatoes (2.09%).

On the other hand, a major decrease was observed in the prices of bananas (5.36%), sugar (1.15%), vegetable ghee 2.5kg (0.93%), cooking oil 2.5kg (0.89%), vegetable ghee 1kg (0.72%), wheat flour (0.17%), and pulse moong (0.16%).

SPI for the week ended July 26, 2023 recorded the highest WoW increase since October 27, 2022. In October 2022, it was up 4.13% WoW and 30.68% YoY.

For the week under review, SPI was recorded at 268.08 points against 258.45 points registered last week and 207.47 points recorded during the week ended July 28, 2022.

PBS compiles SPI via collecting prices of 51 essential items from 50 markets in 17 cities.

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 20 (39.22%) items increased, 7 (13.73%) items decreased, and prices of 24 (47.05%) items remained unchanged.