By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The short-term inflation rate eased to 18.4 percent in the week ended August 1, the lowest since May 2022, as prices of food and energy items declined, official data showed on Friday.
The Sensitive Price Index (SPI)-based inflation rate fell below 20 percent for the first time since May 2022, driven by slower price increases for items like onions and powdered milk, and a drop in prices of wheat flour, cooking oil, vegetable ghee, eggs, and chili powder, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data showed.
The weekly inflation rate had surged to a record 48.35 percent year-on-year in early May 2023 but has been decelerating since then. The inflation rate had previously fallen to 24.4 percent in late August 2023 before surging past 40 percent in mid-November. The last reading above 40 percent was witnessed in late January 2024.
During the past week, prices of electricity charges (-15.8 percent), bananas (-4.9 percent), diesel (-3.8 percent), petrol (-2.2 percent), wheat flour (-0.98 percent), and sugar and cigarettes (-0.21 percent each) declined. In contrast, prices of chicken (+5.9 percent), eggs (+1.6 percent), cooked daal (+1.05 percent), pulse gram (+0.8 percent), cooked beef (+0.5 percent), broken basmati rice (+0.44 percent), garlic (+0.43 percent), onions (+0.4 percent), shirting (+0.09 percent), and LPG (+0.06 percent) increased.
On an annual basis, prices of gas charges (+570 percent), onions (+86.5 percent), pulse gram (+41.8 percent), powdered milk (+32.3 percent), pulse moong (+30.2 percent), garlic (+27.9 percent), shirting (+25.1 percent), gents sandal (+25 percent), powdered salt (+23.3 percent), and beef (+23.1 percent) rose sharply. In contrast, prices of wheat flour (-32.3 percent), electricity charges (-15.5 percent), cooking oil (-13.4 percent), vegetable ghee (-9.99 percent), eggs (-7.9 percent), chili powder (-7 percent), mustard oil (-6.8 percent), and broken basmati rice (-5.7 percent) declined.
The SPI index, comprising 51 items collected from 50 markets in 17 cities, showed that prices of 24 items increased, 7 items decreased, and 20 items remained stable compared to the previous week. The headline monthly consumer price index (CPI) inflation also fell to 11.09 percent in July 2024, the lowest since October 2021.
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