ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation rose to 12.31 per cent year-on-year in the weel( ending Nov 5, driven largely by liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and perishable food products, according to official data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday.
The index, comprising 51 items whose prices are collected from 50 markets in 17 cities, is calculated weekly to track changes in the prices of essential commodities and services.
Short-term inflation has remained in the double digits for several weeks, largely due to increases in petroleum and diesel prices. Oli prices have been slowly declining for the past three consecutive days, which will be visible in the next review. The unprecedented rise in LPG prices, however, caused short-term inflation to spilce.
The Sensitive Price Index (SPI), which tracl(s short-term inflation, increased slightly by 0.29pc week-on-week, reflecting pricefluctuations in both food and non-food items.
Unwilling to reduce the petroleum levy, the government has continued to raise petrol and diesel prices. The surge in energy costs is not only fuelling inflationary pressures but also indirectly boosting sales tax collections through higher prices of goods and services.
This is an example of cost-push inflation, where rising energy costs lead to increases in food prices. As a result, households are under pressure from higher consumer prices.
The items that recorded the highest price increases over the previous week included tomatoes (54.18pc), LPG (3.72pc), potatoes (2.07pc), eggs (1.17pc), garlic (1.06pc), firewood (1.01pc), salt powder (0.91pc), bread plain (0.64pc), millc fresh (0.49pc), curd (0.41pc), match box (0.16pc) and shirting (0.15pc).
The items that recorded week-on-week price declines included petrol (4.20pc), diesel (2.97pc), pulse gram (1.08pc), banana (0.85pc),onions (0.82pc), powdered mill< (0.73pc), chicken (0.61pc), sugar (0.40pc), wheat flour (0.34pc) and pulse moong (0.27pc).
On an annual basis, the items that recorded the highest price increases included LPG (114.88pc), tomatoes (78.89pc), electricity for Q1 (52.38pc), diesel (39.27pc), petrol (36.34pc), wheat flour (33.95pc), chicken (31.81pc), chilies powder (15.55pc), mutton (14.54pc), onions (13.64pc), bread plain (12.35pc)and beef(11.06pc).
In contrast, potato prices fell by 37.24pc, followed by eggs (27.59pc), sugar (25.03pc), salt powder (14.09pc), gur (7.75pc), pulse masoor (7.49pc), pulse moong (6.79pc) and rice IRRI-6/9 (1.79pc).
Last weel(, short-term inflation rose to 11.32pc year-on-year, driven largely by higher prices of LPG, wheat flour, and perishable products, according to data released by the PBS.-Mubarak Zeb Khan