SPI spikes 30.66pc on costly food

The weekly inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), posted a year-on-year increase of 30.66 percent for the combined income group for the period ending Dec 8 mainly due to surging food prices, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

On a week-to-week basis, the SPI remained unchanged. The main cause of this was the unchanged price of oil, while the prices of a few vegetables showed a little decline.

Onions usually cost between Rs200 and Rs250 per kg, while the average price of tomatoes in the market is between Rs160 and Rs200 per kg. The cost of potatoes varies from Rs90 to Rs110 per kg.

The food items with the largest price increases week over week were onions (8.74%), bananas (2.36%), broken basmati rice (2.22%), eggs (1.98%), salt powder (1.33%), and sugar (1.17pc). LPG prices climbed (2.47%) and matchbox prices increased in the non-food category (1.95pc).

The costs of tomatoes (down 25.48%), chicken (3.70%), potatoes (3.68%), pulse masoor (0.38%), cooking oil (5 litres), 2.5 kg (0.32%), pulse gramme (0.30%), and 1 kg of vegetable ghee are all down significantly (0.28pc).

Onions (422.57 pc), diesel (64.57 pc), Lipton tea (62.61 pc), powdered salt (57.35 pc), eggs (55.28 pc), petrol (53.85 pc), men's sock chappal (52.21 pc), bananas (50.58pc), tomatoes (49.04 pc), pulse gramme (48.06 pc), pulse moong (45.44 pc), mustard oil (42.96 pc), and pulse mash (39.98 pc.