Pakistan’s weekly inflation rises sharply year-on-year as fuel, electricity and food prices continue to pressure consumers
Pakistan’s weekly inflation, measured through the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), rose 14.47% year-on-year for the week ended May 21, 2026, driven largely by higher energy and food prices.
According to PBS data released on Friday, significant increases were recorded in the prices of petrol, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and electricity charges compared with the corresponding week last year.
The data showed that onion prices rose 68.33% year-on-year, followed by petrol at 62.24%, diesel at 60.90%, wheat flour at 59.45%, LPG at 50.73% and electricity charges for the first quarter at 43.30%.
Other notable increases were recorded in tomatoes, mutton, chili powder, garlic, beef and bananas.
However, prices of several essential commodities declined on an annual basis, including potatoes, eggs, gram pulse, chicken, sugar, salt powder, masoor pulse and moong pulse.
The PBS compiles the SPI on a weekly basis to monitor short-term price movements of essential commodities across the country. The index covers 51 essential items collected from 50 markets in 17 cities.
Weekly SPI analysis
On a week-on-week basis, SPI inflation declined by 0.33% during the week ended May 21.
The largest weekly decreases were recorded in chicken prices, which fell 8.56%, followed by electricity charges for the first quarter at 6.08%, garlic at 3.53%, moong pulse at 1.45%, and petrol and diesel at 1.21% each.
LPG, gram pulse, bananas, eggs and mash pulse also posted slight declines during the week.
Meanwhile, the highest weekly increase was recorded in tomatoes, which rose 7.17%, followed by onions at 6.08% and wheat flour at 1.84%.
Prices of long cloth, georgette fabric, potatoes, cooked daal, prepared tea, cooking oil and curd also moved higher.
According to PBS data, prices of 26 out of 51 monitored items increased during the week, while 11 items recorded declines and 14 remained unchanged.
