ISLAMABAD: According to official data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on May 5, 2023, consumer prices increased in the past week, leading to an annual inflation rate of 48.35%. The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the week ending May 4, 2023, showed a 1.50% increase in short-term inflation. The report identified several food items, such as wheat flour, chicken, potatoes, pulses, and powdered milk, as the main drivers of the increase in prices. Specifically, the prices of chicken, potatoes, powdered milk, pulse gram, pulse masoor, eggs, mutton, pulse mash, cooked daal, and bread increased by 8.91%, 3.99%, 3.81%, 1.96%, 1.83%, 1.81%, 1.71%, 1.58%, 1.36%, and 1.13%, respectively. Additionally, non-food items, such as gents sponge chappal, gents sandal, ladies sandal, and washing soap, saw significant price increases of 58.05%, 33.36%, 14.31%, and 1.27%, respectively.
In contrast, prices of onions, garlic, tomatoes, diesel, mustard oil, LPG, cooking oil (5 liters), and vegetable ghee (2.5kg and 1kg each) saw declines of 16.69%, 3.44%, 3.41%, 1.70%, 0.99%, 0.96%, 0.40%, and 0.10%, respectively. The year-on-year trend shows an increase in the prices of several items, such as wheat flour, cigarettes, potatoes, gas charges for Q1, Tea Lipton, gents sponge shappal, diesel, eggs, rice basmati broken, bananas, petrol, rice irri-6/9, pulse moong, bread, and pulse mash. These items saw price increases of between 60.59% and 177.61%. In contrast, tomatoes, onions, and chilies powdered saw price decreases of 50.09%, 10.03%, and 6.48%, respectively.
