Food prices push weekly inflation to 30.6pc.

Short-term inflation measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI) reached 30.6 per cent year-on-year in the week ending on January 5, up from last week's 29.3pc, as food prices continue to remain high.

Data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday showed inflation rose 1.09pc week-on-week. It had fallen slightly by 0.09pc in the previous week.

The SPI monitors the prices of 51 essential items based on a survey of 50 markets in 17 cities across the country. During the week under review, the prices of 23 items increased and nine decreased while 19 remained unchanged.

Highest YoY rise

Onions: 501.23pc

Chicken: 82.5pc

Lipton tea: 65.41pc

Diesel: 60.63pc

Eggs: 50.51pc

Highest YoY fall

Chili Powder: 22.98pc

Gur: 1.11pc

Highest WoW rise

Chicken: 16.09pc

Basmati rice: 5.16pc

Flour: 4.87pc

Bananas: 2.97pc

Onions: 2.65pc

Highest WoW fall

Potatoes: 4.61pc

Eggs: 1.31pc

Tomatoes: 1.17pc

Vegetable ghee 2.5kg: 0.71pc

Cooking oil 5 litre: 0.32pc

Pakistan has been in the grips of high inflation in the past few months. The Consumer Price Index (CPI), which had spiked to a decades-high level of 27.2pc in August and slowed slightly in the following months, rose again to 24.5pc in December.

The finance ministry had forecast inflation would stay high - between 21-23pc during the current fiscal year.

Inflation has been driven in part due to the...