ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), rose 0.41 per cent year-on-year in the week ending May 29 owing to a rise in the retail price of perishable products.

The SPI-based inflation recorded a partial increase for the third consecutive week, following a 10-week deflation. The extraordinary spike in the retail prices of sugar, meat and chicken also contributed to reversing the trend during the week under review.

The retail price of sugar in the market reached Rs190 to Rs200 per kg.

The SPI, however, declined by 0.81pc week-on-week due to drop in rice and wheat prices, official data showed on Friday.

The overall short-term inflation slowed due to the higher base of last year.

The items whose prices increased the most over the previous week included tomatoes (4.54pc), potatoes (2.94pc), eggs (2.19pc), onions (2.17pc), gur (0.77pc), bananas (0.73pc), mustard oil (0.34pc), cigarettes (0.25pc), pulse mash (0.22pc), pulse gram (0.17pc), pulse masoor (0.14pc) and rice basmati broken (0.12pc).

The items whose prices saw a decline week-on-week included electricity charges for Q1 (10.10pc), chicken (8.51pc), LPG (2.67pc), sugar (0.25pc), powdered milk (0.20pc), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (0.17pc), wheat flour (0.09pc), rice-IRRI-6/9 (0.07pc), garlic (0.05pc) and pulse moong (0.01pc).

However, on an annual basis, the items whose prices increased the most included ladies sandal (55.62pc), chicken (32.92pc), eggs (32.30pc), pulse moong (31.45pc), powdered milk (23.75pc), sugar (21.96pc), bananas (21.17pc), pulse gram (19.66pc), beef (17.51pc), LPG (16.30pc), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (13.67pc), and vegetable ghee 1 kg (12.76pc).

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2025