ISLAMABAD: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the week ended December 24, 2020 recorded an increase of 0.11 percent over last week due to rise in prices of food items, ie, tomatoes (9.5 percent), eggs (3.14 percent), bananas (1.91 percent), wheat flour (0.57 percent), sugar (0.16 percent), and non-food item LPG (1.40 percent), said the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

According to the latest data, released by the PBS, the SPI went up from 140.73 points during the week ended December 17, 2020 to 140.89 points during the week under review.

The PBS data further stated that the year-on-year trend depicts an increase of 7.66 percent with most of the items increased mainly chilies powder (86.31 percent), eggs (60.22 percent), chicken (35.06 percent), match box (24.40 percent), Sufi washing soap (20.88 percent), mustard oil (19 percent), maash (17 percent), vegetable ghee 1kg (16.44 percent), long cloth (16.24 percent) and shirting (15.10 percent), while a major decrease was observed in the price of onions (29.2 percent), LPG (17.3 percent), diesel (13.22 percent), garlic (12.4 percent), tomatoes (9.59 percent), petrol (8.95 percent), electricity for Q1 (5.15 percent), and gram (0.81 percent).

The SPI for the consumption groups up to Rs17,733 and from Rs17,733 to Rs22,888 per month decreased by 0.13 percent and 0.02 percent respectively while for consumption groups from Rs22,889 to Rs29,517, Rs29,518 to Rs44,175 and above Rs44,175 per month increased by 0.06 percent, 0.14 percent and 0.16 percent respectively.

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 20 (39.22 percent) items increased, 10 (19.61 percent) items decreased, and 21 (41.17 percent) items remained constant.

The commodities, which recorded increase in their average price include tomatoes (9.50 percent), eggs (3.14 percent), bananas (1.91 percent), LPG (1.40 percent), mustard oil (1.21 percent), Sufi washing soap (0.94 percent), firewood (0.88 percent), cooked beef (0.66 percent), milk fresh (0.62 percent), vegetable ghee (0.59 percent), wheat flour bag (0.57 percent), vegetable ghee 1kg (0.51 percent), curd (0.51 percent), gur (0.42 percent), cooked daal (0.30 percent), cooking oil (0.28 percent), sugar refined (0.16 percent), mutton (0.16 percent), powdered milk (0.04 percent), and beef with bone (0.01 percent).

The commodities, which recorded decrease in their average price, include potatoes (12.05 percent), onions (7.44 percent), chicken farm broiler (6.71 percent), masoor (1.94 percent), garlic (0.54 percent), rice irri-6/9 (0.51 percent), moong (0.34 percent), rice basmati broken (0.30 percent), maash (0.14 percent), and gram (0.10 percent).

According to the PBS, the commodities whose prices remained unchanged during the period under review include bread plain, salt powdered, chilies powder, tea Lipton Yellow Label, tea prepared, long cloth 57" Gul Ahmed/Al Karam, shirting, lawn printed Gul Ahmed/Al Karam, Georgette, gents sandal, gents sponge chappal, ladies sandal, electricity charges for Q1, gas charges, energy saver, match box, petrol super per litre, hi-speed diesel per litre, telephone call charges, and toilet soap lifebuoy.—TAHIR AMIN