The Sensitive Price about kitchen items Indicator (SPI) based weekly inflation for the week ended on March 17, for the combined consumption group, witnessed decrease of 1.37 percent as compared to the previous week, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported Friday.

The SPI for the week under review in the above mentioned group was recorded at 169.06 points against 171.41 points registered in the previous week, according to the PBS data.

The decline in weekly inflation was mainly contributed by tomatoes and chicken, the prices of which went down by 12.04 percent and 8.39 percent respectively.

The commodities prices of which decreased during the week included garlic (2.04%), sugar (0.49%), potatoes (0.41%), pulse gram (0.31%), pulse mash (0.14%), electricity charges for Q1 (9.81%) and LPG (1.58%).

On Year-on-Year basis, the commodities that witnessed decrease in prices included chillies powdered (37.44%), pulse Moong (29.62%), eggs (18.49%), sugar (10.92%), potatoes (8.76%) and electricity charges for Q1 (0.16%),

Meanwhile, the commodities that witnessed increase on WoW basis, included vegetable ghee 1 kg (6.25%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (4.56%), cooking oil 5 litre (3.62%), lawn (3.14%), shirting (2.57%), onions (2.06%), georgette (2.00%), cooked beef (1.98%), long cloth (1.82%), bananas (1.76%), match box (1.60%), eggs (1.39%), mustard oil (1.27%) and mutton (1.03%).

The kitchen items that witnessed increase in prices on YoY basis included tomatoes (90.53%), LPG (73.18%), garlic (65.76%), mustard oil (58.57%), vegetable ghee 1 kg (55.16%), cooking oil 5 litre (50.75%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (49.90%), washing soap (39.17%), pulse masoor (37.23%), petrol (33.42%), beef (24.84%) and diesel (23.75%),

During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 29 (56.86%) items increased, 09 (17.65%) items decreased and 13 (25.49%) items remained stable.

It is pertinent to mention here that the weekly SPI with base year 2015-16=100 is covering 17 urban centers and 51 essential items for all expenditure groups.

Meanwhile, 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 15.12 percent.

The Sensitive Price Indicator for the lowest consumption group up to Rs17,732 witnessed 0.99 percent decrease and went down to 177.17 this week from 178.95 points in last week.

Likewise, the SPI for the consumption groups from Rs17,732-22,888; Rs22,889-29,517; Rs29,518-44,175 and above Rs 44,175 also decreased by 1.61 percent, 1.12 percent, 0.92 percent and 1.23 percent respectively.