The weekly inflation has increased by 0.78%.
The increase in fuel, rice, and sugar prices gave the largest boost to the country’s Sensitive Price Index (SPI), which continued to grow for the week ending August 17, 2023.
The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said on Friday that weekly inflation increased by 0.78%, while annual inflation increased by 27.57%, a modest decrease from the previous week’s 30.82%.
The PBS ascribed the increase in the SPI to higher costs for a variety of everyday products such as chilli powder, rice, sugar, chicken, petrol, and diesel, which accounted for more than 7% of the increase.
Meanwhile, prices for tomatoes, cooking oil, ghee, wheat flour, and other products fell by up to 13%.
The SPI was 275.57 points for the week under review, compared to 273.43 points the previous week and 216.02 points for the week ending August 18, 2022.
Also read: Does inflation disproportionately hurt women?
According to Fahad Rauf, head of research at Ismail Iqbal Securities, the increase was mostly due to increasing gasoline costs, but it is crucial to note that the prices of other key food commodities, such as rice and sugar, also climbed. Some of these can be attributed to the growth in global pricing.
“CPI (consumer price index) is expected to fall in August due to high base effect. However, inflation continues to rise on a monthly basis. Moreover, given the recent rupee depreciation, more inflationary pressures could build,” Rauf added.
PBS compiles SPI by collecting prices of 51 essential items from 50 markets in 17 cities of the country. During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 32 (62.75% ) items increased, 7 (13.72%) items decreased and prices of 12 (23.53%) items remained unchanged.
Rising inflation has widened the wealth divide significantly, with the working classes bearing the brunt of the consequences. Food is becoming increasingly out of reach for individuals working in the informal economy on minimum or even lower wages.
A wheat flour bag cost Rs385.73/10kg (Rs771.46/20kg) for the week ending August 16, 2018, according to PBS archives, and a person earning Rs15,000 minimum wage spent 5% of their salary on the vital item.
Currently, at Rs32,000 per month, a person spends 9% of their minimum income on a 20kg bag of wheat flour, which sells for Rs2,824.73 on average.
Similarly, spending on cooking oil has risen from 6% of the minimum wage in August 2018 to 9% in 2023.
In August 2018, the price of cooking oil was Rs960/5 litres; it is currently Rs3,019.66/5 litres.
