Weekly Inflation
KARACHI: Weekly inflation in Pakistan, measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), recorded a marginal decline of 0.09% for the week ending March 6, 2025, according to a report, on Saturday. This slight relief in inflation was mainly attributed to a reduction in prices of essential food items and fuel.
The SPI, which monitors the prices of 51 key consumer goods across 17 cities, reflected mixed trends. Out of these 51 items, 20 saw price decreases, 13 recorded increases, while 18 remained unchanged.
The latest data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) indicated that a significant decline in food prices was the primary driver behind the overall inflation decrease.
Among the food items that became more affordable, onions saw the sharpest price drop of 5.59%, followed by Lipton tea (down 4.47%), garlic (3.89%), tomatoes (3.6%), pulse gram (3.49%), pulse mash (2.82%), potatoes (2.6%), and pulse masoor (1.5%). Additionally, fuel prices also registered a decline, with diesel becoming 2% cheaper and petrol prices dropping slightly by 0.24%.
Despite the overall easing of inflation, some essential commodities witnessed price hikes. Bananas recorded the largest increase, surging by 9.79% on a week-on-week (WoW) basis. Sugar prices rose by 3.15%, followed by LPG (2.64%), eggs (2.52%), mutton (0.33%), and wheat flour (0.22%). Other minor increases were observed in the prices of long cloth and gur (both up by 0.17%), cigarettes and beef (0.06% each).
On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the SPI showed an overall decline of 0.87%, largely due to the sharp reduction in prices of several key food staples.
The most notable decreases were recorded in onions (down 64.92%), tomatoes (57.05%), wheat flour (36.81%), chilies powder (20%), electricity charges for the first quarter (18.92%), tea (14.92%), pulse mash (14.68%), pulse masoor (12.33%), diesel (9.91%), basmati broken rice (9.55%), petrol (8.55%), and LPG (2.54%).
However, certain items registered significant price increases over the past year. Ladies’ sandals experienced the sharpest hike, with prices soaring by 75.09%.
Other notable increases were observed in bananas (30.96%), pulse moong (26.9%), powdered milk (25.86%), beef (22.51%), pulse gram (21.73%), vegetable ghee (16.12% for the 1kg pack and 14.32% for the 2.5kg pack), shirting fabric (14.13%), eggs (13.52%), firewood (11.07%), and georgette fabric (10.89%).
The impact of inflation varied across different income groups. The lowest-income households experienced the sharpest weekly decline in inflation, with a reduction of 0.20%, whereas the highest-income group saw only a marginal drop of 0.03%.
On a yearly basis, the lowest expenditure group recorded a significant inflation decline of 2.47%, while the highest-income group registered a slight increase of 0.24%.
While the easing of inflation in the past week provides some relief to consumers, fluctuations in essential commodity prices continue to affect different income segments unevenly.
