Weekly inflation surges after FY25 budget

Islamabad: After the presentation of the budget for the new financial year 2024-25, the weekly inflation in the country increased.

According to the weekly inflation report released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the short-term inflation rate increased by 0.94 percent, while the overall annual inflation rate in the country reached 23.78 percent.

Inflation measured by price sensitive index examines the prices of 15 essential commodities from 50 markets in 17 cities of the country. During the review period, 25 commodities increased in prices, five decreased in prices while the prices of the other 21 commodities remained the same.

During the week ending June 20, the commodities that saw the highest price increase weekly were tomato (65.84 percent), potato (5.61 percent), onion (3.78 percent), banana (3.29 percent), LPG (2.44 percent), cigarettes (1.67 percent), beans (1.53 percent), garlic (1.29 percent), fresh milk (0.95 percent), and eggs (0.83 percent).

Among the commodities that saw the highest price increase on a year-on-year basis were gas charges (570 percent), tomato (191 percent), onion (122.66 percent), chilli (54.81 percent), garlic (40.55 percent), and shirting (30.75 percent).

However, prices of commodities that declined every week included petrol (3.76 percent), diesel (0.84 percent), broken basmati rice and lentils (0.08 percent) and chicken meat (0.05 percent).