ISLAMABAD: The short-term inflation continued its upward trajectory, registering an annual increase of 42.86 per cent in the week ending on Jan 4 mainly due to a surge in prices of vegetables and pulses, official data showed on Friday.

With the latest reading, the weekly inflation remained above 41pc for the eighth week in a row, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

On an annual basis, the items whose prices increased the most included gas charges for Q1 (1,108.59pc), tomatoes (94.05pc), cigarettes (93.22pc), chillies powder (81.74pc), garlic (67.88pc), wheat flour bag (65.36pc), gents sponge chappal (58.05pc), sugar (57.76pc), rice Irri-6/9 (54.52pc), gents sandal (53.37pc), rice basmati broken (51.45pc), and gur (48.07pc). In contrast, the prices of onions dropped 12.25pc year-onyear, followed by mustard oil (5.40pc), vegetable ghee 1 kg (1.11pc) and bananas (1.01pc).

The short-term, or weekly, inflation is measured by a basket of goods and services called the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), which stood at 313.66 compared to 311.14 in the preceding week and 219.56 a year ago.

-Staff Reporter