ISLAMABAD: The prices of essential items have surged by 19.5 per cent during past one year by week ended December 16, 2021, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said.
The year on year trend depicts increase of 19.49 per cent when compared with the week ended December 17, 2020.
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The PBS issued Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) to gauge inflation on weekly / short term basis. The SPI is computed on weekly basis to assess the price movements of essential commodities at shorter interval of time so as to review the price situation in the country. SPI comprises of 51 essential items collected from 50 markets in 17 cities of the country.
The prices of following essential items registered growth on year on year basis:
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Electricity for Q1 (83.95 per cent), LPG (65.26 per cent), Cooking Oil 5 litre (60.37 per cent), Vegetable Ghee 1 Kg (57.56 per cent), Vegetable Ghee 2.5 Kg (55.62 per cent), Mustard Oil (55.60 per cent), Washing Soap (45.75 per cent), Petrol (35.42 per cent), Chilies Powdered (32.24 per cent), Pulse Masoor (29.52 per cent) and Diesel (26.72 per cent), while major decrease observed in the prices of Onions (28.72 per cent), Pulse Moong (24.87 per cent), Chicken (16.09 per cent), Tomatoes (14.76 per cent), Potatoes (14.58 per cent) and Eggs (9.86 per cent).
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The SPI for the current week ended on December 16, 2021 recorded an increase of 0.55 per cent. Increase in the prices of food items Pulse Masoor (4.11 per cent), Salt (3.70 per cent), Pulse Gram (2.08 per cent), Bananas (1.69 per cent), Mustard Oil (1.35 per cent), Pulse Mash (1.32 per cent), non-food items Electricity for Q1 (10.37 per cent) and Washing Soap (1.23 per cent) was observed with joint impact of (1.55 per cent) into the overall SPI for combined group of (0.55 per cent).
On the other hand, decrease observed in the prices of Potatoes (15.52 per cent), Tomatoes (12.65 per cent), Chicken (5.94 per cent), Onions (3.94 per cent), Diesel (3.48 per cent), Petrol (3.40 per cent), Eggs (1.69 per cent), Gur (1.34 per cent), Sugar (1.29 per cent), Chilies Powdered (0.57 per cent), Beef (0.54 per cent), Pulse Moong (0.37 per cent), Rice Basmati Broken (0.20 per cent), Mutton (0.15 per cent) and Wheat Flour (0.04 per cent).
During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 17 (33.34 per cent) items increased,15 (29.41 per cent) items decreased and 19 (37.25 per cent) items remained stable.
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