The weekly inflation measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), witnessed a decrease of 1.13 percent for the combined consumption groups during the week ended on March 21, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Friday.

According to the PBS data, the SPI for the week under review in the above-mentioned group was recorded at 323.50 points as compared to 327.21 points during the past week.

As compared to the corresponding week of last year, the SPI for the combined consumption group in the week under review witnessed an increase of 29.06 percent.

The weekly SPI with the base year 2015–16 =100 covers 17 urban centres and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups.

The SPI for the lowest consumption group up to Rs. 17,732, decreased by 1.83 percent and went down to 314.20 points from last week’s 320.06 points.

The SPI for consumption groups from Rs. 17,732-22,888, Rs. 22,889-29,517; Rs. 29,518-44,175 and above Rs. 44,175, decreased by 1.64 percent, 1.34 percent, 1.25 and 0.91 percent respectively.

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 09 (17.65%) items increased, 17 (33.33%) items decreased and 25 (49.02%) items remained stable.

The items, which recorded a decrease in their average prices on a week-on-week basis included Tomatoes (36.73%), Onions (19.58%), Potatoes (4.02%), Garlic (2.87%), Pulse Mash (1.25%), Wheat Flour (1.02%), Sugar (0.95%), Pulse Masoor (0.86%) and Diesel (0.60%).

The items that recorded an increase in their prices included LPG (1.49%), Shirting (0.74%), Beef (0.53%), Rice Basmati Broken (0.48%), Mutton (0.42%), Mustard Oil (0.40%), Rice Irri 6/9 (0.25%), Powdered Milk (0.14%) and Georgette (0.03%).

On Year-on-Year basis, the commodities that witnessed decrease included cooking Oil 5 Litre (21.35%), Vegetable Ghee 2.5 Kg (18.48%), Vegetable Ghee 1 Kg (18.44%), Mustard Oil (13.90%), Bananas (13.52%), Diesel (2.47%) and Cigarettes (0.06%).

The commodities which recorded an increase in their average prices on year-on-year basis included Gas Charges for Q1 ( 570.00%), Chilies Powder (86.05%), Gents Sponge Chappal (58.05%), Garlic (57.41%), Onions (54.65%), Gents Sandal (53.37%), Gur (39.86%), Sugar (35.01%), Salt Powder (33.29%), Energy Saver (29.83%) and Pulse Mash (27.31%).