ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation surged 11.53 per cent year on year for the week ending Oct 1, mainly due to higher food prices, according to official data released on Friday.

The short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), rose by 0.21pc on a week-on-week basis, reflecting fluctuations in food and non-food prices.

Unwilling to reduce petroleum development levy, the government is steadily increasing petrol and diesel prices on a daily basis. The rising energy prices were also indirectly contributing to higher sales tax collection.

The items whose prices increased the most over the previous week included chicken (7.25pc), garlic (1.85pc), pulse gram (1.30pc), LPG (1.17pc), eggs (0.72pc), rice IRRI-6/9 (0.55pc), onions (0.39pc), washing soap (0.33pc), wheat flour (0.29pc), long cloth and lawn printed (0.19pc) each.

The items whose prices saw a decline week-on-week included diesel (3.43pc), bananas (1.52pc), sugar (1.05pc), potatoes (0.96pc), petrol (0.65pc), pulse moong (0.63pc), tomatoes (0.51pc), pulse masoor (0.42pc), gur (0.12pc) and powdered milk (0.10pc).

However, on an annual basis, the items whose prices increased the most included onions (114.20pc), LPG (66.59pc), electricity for Q1 (58.59pc), diesel (44.50pc), petrol (44.05pc), wheat flour (32.65pc), chilli powder (15.55pc), mutton (15.07pc), chicken (13.60pc), beef (12.90pc), bread plain (8.96pc) and milk fresh (8.10pc).

In contrast, the prices of tomatoes dropped 45.52pc, followed by potatoes (39.54pc), sugar (21.95pc), eggs (17.47pc), salt powder (14.81pc), pulse masoor (10.92pc), pulse gram (9.90pc) and pulse moong (8.20pc).

The index, comprising 51 items collected from 50 markets in 17 cities, is computed weekly to assess the prices of essential commodities and services at shorter intervals.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2026