Short-Term inflation drops 2.72pc

Islamabad: Short-term inflation in Pakistan, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), fell by 2.72% year-on-year during the week ending April 17. The drop is mainly due to a fall in prices of perishable food items in the local market.

According to official data, SPI-based inflation has been declining for seven straight weeks. The downward trend is driven by lower prices of tomatoes, wheat flour, potatoes, eggs, and chicken. Compared to the previous week, inflation was down by 0.69%.

Experts say the slower pace of inflation is also due to a higher base last year. Most product prices remained stable, except for a few items like wheat flour and some perishables. However, meat prices have been gradually increasing in recent weeks.

Earlier, SPI inflation had remained above 40% for 11 consecutive weeks. It had jumped from 29% in November 2023 to a record 48.35% in May 2023. By late August 2023, inflation slowed to 24.4%, but again crossed 40% by mid-November.

In the latest weekly data, prices of several items decreased. Tomatoes saw the biggest drop at 22.77%, followed by chicken (11.05%), onions (9.82%), garlic (8.85%), wheat flour (2.37%), (2.18%), mustard oil (0.95%), LPG (0.89%), and 1kg vegetable ghee (0.68%).

However, some items became more expensive week-on-week. These include shirting (3.68%), printed lawn fabric (1.47%), long cloth and georgette (1.33% each), gram pulse (1.03%), cooked beef (0.74%), beef (0.66%), cooked daal (0.56%), mutton (0.48%), moong pulse (0.03%), IRRI-6/9 rice, and fresh milk (0.02% each).

Annually, the biggest price hikes were seen in ladies’ sandals (55.62%), moong pulse (27.21%), powdered milk (24.71%), gram pulse (21%), beef (19.06%), sugar (17.14%), and vegetable ghee (up to 15.75%).