Short-term inflation, as measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), fell for the third consecutive week, reaching 16.86% for the period ending August 8, according to official data released on Friday.
This decrease is primarily attributed to the high base of last year’s rates. However, the SPI experienced a week-on-week drop of 0.16%.
In early May 2023, weekly inflation peaked at a record 48.35% year-on-year, then slowed to 24.4% by late August 2023 before rising above 40% in mid-November. The most recent reading above 40% was in late January.
During the past week, prices of items such as onions (4.91%), petrol (3.15%), diesel (2.44%), wheat flour (1.83%), moong dal (1.81%), chicken (1.57%), bananas (1.36%), LPG (0.90%), sugar (0.59%), potatoes (0.58%), and masoor dal (0.56%) decreased.
Conversely, prices of tomatoes (34.77%), eggs (4.78%), garlic (1.99%), beef (0.88%), cooked beef (0.41%), georgette (0.40%), gur (0.39%), curd (0.32%), and mustard oil (0.28%) increased.
The SPI index, which tracks 51 items from 50 markets across 17 cities, showed that during the review week, prices for 19 items increased, 13 items decreased, and 19 items remained stable compared to the previous week.
