Inflation in Pakistan reaches all time high of 46%

Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), reached an all-time high of 46.65 percent year-on-year for the week ending on March 22, in comparison to last week 45.64’s percent YoY, as per data by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), media reports said. On a week-on-week basis, short-term inflation increased by 1.80 percent as tomatoes, potatoes and wheat flour became costlier, Samaa TV reported. The SPI for the current week ended on March 22 recorded increase of 1.80 percent. Major increase is observed in the prices of food items – tomatoes (71.77 percent), wheat flour (42.32 percent), potatoes (11.47 percent), bananas (11.07 percent), tea Lipton (7.34 percent), pulse mash (1.57 percent), tea prepared (1.32 percent) and gur (1.03 percent), and non-food items like georgette (2.11 percent), lawn (1.77 percent) and long cloth (1.58 percent), Samaa TV reported. On the other hand, decrease was observed in the prices of chicken (8.14 percent), chillies powdered (2.31 percent), LPG (1.31 percent), mustard oil & garlic (1.19 percent) each, pulse Gram & onions (1.06 percent each), vegetable ghee 1 kg (0.83 percent), cooking oil 5 litre (0.21 percent), pulse moong (0.17 percent), pulse masoor (0.15 percent), and Eggs (0.03 percent). During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 26 (50.98 percent) items increased, 12 (23.53 percent) items decreased, and 13 (25.49 percent) items remained stable, Samaa TV reported. The year on year trend depicts increase of 46.65 percent, onions (228.28 percent), cigarettes (165.88 percent), wheat flour (120.66 percent), gas charges for Q1 (108.38 percent), diesel (102.84 percent), tea Lipton (94.60 percent), bananas (89.84 percent), rice Irri-6/9 (81.51 percent), rice Basmati broken (81.22 percent), petrol (81.17 percent), eggs (79.56 percent), pulse moong (68.64 percent), potatoes (57.21 percent) and pulse mash (56.46 percent), while decrease is observed in the price of chillies powdered (9.56 percent).