Short-term inflation hits record 45.64pc.

ISLAMABAD -- Short-term inflation, based on the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), saw a record increase to 45.64 per cent for the combined income group on a year-on-year basis for the week ending March 16 fuelled by consistent increase the price of essential commodities, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday.

However, on a week-on-week basis, the short-term inflation increased by 0.96pc as tomatoes, potatoes, cooking oil and fruits becoming costlier.

The SPI is expected to intensify further as the full impact of depreciation, increase in petroleum products, hike in general sales tax and higher energy costs is yet to reflect in official data. The commodity prices would show a rapid increase with a spike in demand.

Earlier the year-on-year SPI surged to 45.5pc during the week ended on Sept 1, 2022. It stayed above 40pc for the first time since Aug 18 last year when the reading was 42.31pc.

Of the 51 items in the SPI basket, prices of 28 items soared while those of 11 items decreased, however, rates of 12 items remained unchanged.

During the week under review, the items whose prices increased the most over the same week a year ago were onions (233.89pc), cigarettes (165.86pc), gas charges for Q1 (108.38pc), diesel (102.84pc), tea Lipton (81.29pc), petrol (81.17pc), rice irri-6/9 (78.75pc), rice basmati broken (78.10pc), bananas (77.84pc), eggs (72.19pc), pulse moong (69.44pc), wheat flour (56.27pc) and bread (55.36pc).

On a week-on-week...

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