Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), recorded a fourth consecutive weekly increase, driven primarily by rising vegetable prices, according to official data released on Friday.
The SPI-based inflation surged by 23.78 percent year-on-year in the week ending June 20.
Week-on-week, short-term inflation saw a 0.94 percent rise.
The Finance Bill 2024 proposes a series of indirect taxes expected to drive inflation higher in the coming weeks. For example, an 18 percent sales tax is anticipated to increase prices for pharmaceuticals, books, stationery, and poultry products.
The impact of declining petrol prices on essential commodities is expected to be offset by rising prices of perishable vegetables like tomatoes, onions, and potatoes. Additionally, the increase in sales tax and customs duty on importing fresh vegetables and fruits from Iran and Afghanistan will likely contribute to food inflation in the coming weeks.
Weekly inflation hit a record 48.35 percent year-on-year in early May 2023, then decelerated to as low as 24.4 percent in late August 2023 before rising above 40 percent in the week ending November 16, 2023.
Items that saw the highest week-on-week price increases included tomatoes (65.84 percent), potatoes (5.61 percent), onions (3.78 percent), bananas (3.29 percent), LPG (2.44 percent), cigarettes (1.67 percent), pulse moong (1.53 percent), garlic (1.29 percent), fresh milk (0.95 percent), eggs (0.83 percent), georgette fabric (0.28 percent), and shirting fabric (0.17 percent).
Items with the largest price decreases over the previous week included petrol (3.76 percent), diesel (0.84 percent), basmati broken rice and pulse masoor (0.08 percent each), and chicken (0.05 percent).
Annually, items with the highest price increases included gas charges for Q1 (570 percent), tomatoes (191 percent), onions (122.66 percent), chili powder (54.81 percent), garlic (40.55 percent), shirting fabric (30.75 percent), salt powder (29.49 percent), men’s sandals (25.01 percent), pulse gram (22.67 percent), pulse mash (22.60 percent), beef (22.12 percent), and electricity charges for Q1 (21.46 percent).
Conversely, wheat flour prices dropped by 32.90 percent, followed by chicken (20.60 percent), 5-liter cooking oil (16.17 percent), 2.5 kg vegetable ghee (13.39 percent), 1 kg vegetable ghee (12.42 percent), bananas (11.69 percent), mustard oil (8.24 percent), Lipton tea (2.52 percent), and petrol (1.38 percent).
The SPI stood at 316.88, up from 313.93 the previous week and 256 a year ago.
The index, which comprises 51 items collected from 50 markets in 17 cities, is calculated weekly to assess the prices of essential commodities and services at shorter intervals.
Data showed that the prices of 25 items increased, 5 items decreased, and 21 items remained stable compared to the previous week.
