Inflation plunged by 0.19 percent

According to the Bureau of Statistics, SPI for the current week ended on 18th March 2021 recorded a decrease in the prices of Food items i.e. Chicken (6.63%), Garlic (4.00%), Onions (3.67%), Pulse Gram (0.55%), Pulse Masoor (0.52%), Pulse Moong (0.32%), Rice Basmati Broken (0.21%) and Milk Fresh (0.17%) and among non-food items LPG (0.67%) with the joint impact of (-0.43%) into the overall SPI for the combined group of (-0.19%).

On the other hand, an increase was observed in the prices of Tomatoes (24.55%), Shirting (3.14%), Bananas (2.54%), Red Chilies Powdered (1.81%), Lawn Printed (1.59%), Eggs (1.27%) and Potatoes (1.16%).

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 22 (43.14%) items increased, 09 (17.65%) items decreased and 20 (39.22%) items remained constant.

The year on year trend depicts an increase of 13.48% with most of the items increased mainly Chilies Powder (139.64%), Electricity for Q1 (69.19%), Eggs (66.97%), Chicken (48.51%), Gents Sandal (33.37%), Match Box (30.47%), Mustard Oil (28.56%), Gents Sponge Chappal (25.13%), Washing Soap (21.41%), Sugar (20.54%) and Long Cloth (19.58%) While a major decrease was observed in the price of Onions (48.35%), Garlic (38.42%), LPG (15.42%), Potatoes (10.97%), Diesel (4.98%) and Tomatoes (3.55%).

Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) is computed on weekly basis to assess the price movements of essential commodities at a shorter interval of time to review the price situation in the country.