Weekly inflation edges slightly, sugar price hits Rs200/kg in major cities

Weekly inflation measured through the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) inched up 0.07 percent for the combined consumption group during the week ended November 20, according to the latest data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

PBS data shows the SPI rose to 335.54 points from 335.31 points a week earlier. On a year-on-year basis, the SPI increased by 3.53 percent. The weekly SPI tracks prices in 17 urban centres and covers 51 essential items.

For the lowest expenditure group (up to Rs17,732), the SPI also increased by 0.07 percent. Increases of 0.07 percent, 0.04 percent, 0.03 percent and 0.09 percent were recorded across higher consumption brackets.

Out of 51 monitored commodities, prices of 16 items rose, 13 declined and 22 remained unchanged. Items with notable increases included tomatoes (57.03pc), LPG (5.16pc), garlic (2.61pc), sugar (2.23pc), diesel (2.17pc), bananas (0.72pc), tea prepared (0.59pc), firewood (0.26pc), beef (0.17pc) and mustard oil (0.13pc).

Sugar prices continued to rise sharply across the country, reaching Rs200 per kg in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana and Peshawar. In Sukkur, sugar became costlier by Rs24 per kg in a week, while Hyderabad and Larkana saw increases of Rs15 per kg. Karachi recorded an increase of up to Rs5 per kg.

Quetta reported the highest sugar price at Rs214 per kg, followed by Khuzdar where prices rose by Rs15 per kg to reach Rs210. In Islamabad, sugar stood at Rs195 per kg, while in Punjab prices reached up to Rs190.

The average national price of sugar climbed by Rs4.14 over the week to Rs189.61 per kg, compared with Rs185.47 last week and Rs131.88 a year ago.

Items that saw price declines during the week included onions (12.38pc), chicken (8.07pc), potatoes (5.69pc), salt powdered (1.67pc), pulse moong (1.62pc), wheat flour (1.41pc), pulse gram (0.81pc) and eggs (0.48pc).

On a year-on-year basis, the largest increases were recorded in sugar (43.77pc), gas charges for Q1 (29.85pc), wheat flour (17.31pc), gur (16.35pc), beef (13.45pc), firewood (12.52pc) and bananas (11.81pc). Declines were observed in garlic (36.79pc), potatoes (29.56pc), pulse gram (29.26pc), electricity charges for Q1 (26.26pc), tea (17.79pc), pulse mash (15.28pc), onions (9.97pc), LPG (5.66pc), pulse masoor (5.08pc) and pulse moong (3.42pc).