According to data provided by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday, edible oil, sugar, and vegetables helped drive the weekly inflation up to 41.07 percent on an annual basis.
Sensitive Price Index (SPI) measurements of short-term inflation were still on the high side and would go up much more once customers start to feel the full effects of increased electricity tariffs.
The cost of bananas, chicken, sugar, cooking oil, gas, and cigarettes increased for the week ending March 2, despite a 0.30 percent weekly decline in inflation.
Of the 51 items, 32 saw price increases, nine saw price decreases, and 10 witnessed no change in price.
The items whose prices rose the greatest during the reviewed week in comparison to the same week last year were: onions (311.17 per cent), cigarettes (165.86 per cent), gas charges for Q1 (108.38 per cent), diesel (93.82 per cent), petrol (77.89 per cent), eggs (77.83 per cent), rice irri-6/9 (76.96 per cent), rice basmati broken (75.55 per cent), pulse moong (73.30 per cent), bananas (72.66 per cent), chicken (64.70 per cent) and tea Lipton (64.53 per cent).
Moreover, the highest year-on-year fall was recorded in the prices of tomatoes (56.29 per cent), chillies powdered (7.42 per cent).
The prices of bananas (7.34 per cent), long cloth (3.44 per cent), energy saver (3.33 per cent), 1Kg vegetable ghee (2.48 per cent), gur (2.03 per cent), cooked daal (1.87 per cent), Lipton tea (1.79 per cent), match box (1.66 per cent), lawn printed (1.52 per cent), 5-litre cooking oil (1.45 per cent), and sugar (1.07 per cent) experienced the biggest week-on-week increase.
On the other hand, the prices of onions (13.24 per cent), eggs (6.11 per cent), garlic (4.24 per cent), chicken (2.00 per cent), tomatoes (0.59 per cent), gram pulse (0.38 per cent), and potatoes (0.33 per cent) decreased compared to the previous week. However, LPG (1.84 per cent) and petrol (1.80 per cent) saw an increase in prices.
The government, under the IMF’s conditions, has been implementing strict measures to cool the economy and curb inflation. The policy rate increase and the general sales tax increase from 17 per cent to 18 per cent are expected to further increase the retail price of consumer goods.
To generate revenue and bridge the fiscal deficit, the government has already taken several measures, including adopting a market-based exchange rate, increasing fuel and power tariffs, withdrawing subsidies, and imposing more taxes.
As a result of these measures, the government has revised its annual inflation rate projection from 26 per cent to 31 per cent.
