Official documents released on Friday revealed that Pakistan has experienced an unprecedented increase in petroleum prices over the past year.
According to the latest weekly inflation data, diesel and petrol prices have risen by 103% and 81% respectively. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) disclosed the significant increase in prices of essential items over the past year based on the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI).
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The YoY increase in prices for the week ending April 06, 2023 are as follows: Cigarettes (165.88%), Wheat Flour (131.72%), Gas Charges for Q1 (108.38%), Diesel (102.84%), Eggs (98.34%), Tea Lipton (97.63%), Rice Basmati Broken (84.92%), Bananas (82.23%), Petrol (81.17%), Rice Irri-6/9 (80.61%), Pulse Moong (68.14%), Potatoes (65.95%), Pulse Mash (56.70%) and Onions (55.75%). However, prices for Tomatoes (50.39%) and Chillies Powdered (6.48%) have decreased.
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The SPI for the current week ended on April 06, 2023 recorded an increase of 0.92%. The major increase was observed in the prices of food items, including Chicken (15.87%), Sugar (13.48%), Potatoes (5.11%), Bananas (4.95%), Wheat Flour (3.10%), Gur (2.12%), Eggs (1.26%), Milk Fresh (1.24%) and non-food item, Long Cloth (1.95%). On the other hand, prices for Tomatoes (14.96%), Onions (12.66%), LPG (3.73%), Pulse Gram (1.20%), Vegetable Ghee 2.5 Kg (0.71%), Garlic (0.16%) and Mustard Oil (0.03%) decreased.
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During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 27 (52.94%) items increased, 07 (13.73%) items decreased and 17 (33.33%) items remained stable.
The PBS calculates the SPI on a weekly basis to assess the price movement of essential commodities at shorter intervals of time in order to review the price situation in the country. The SPI comprises of 51 essential items collected from 50 markets in 17 cities of the country.
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