ISLAMABAD: Weekly inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), rose by 0.97 per cent for the combined consumption group during the week ended March 26, 2026, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said on Friday.
The SPI for the week under review stood at 345.45 points, up from 342.13 points in the previous week, according to PBS data. On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the index increased by 8.24 per cent.
The SPI, with base year 2015-16=100, covers 17 urban centres and 51 essential items across all expenditure groups.
For the lowest consumption group (up to Rs17,732), the SPI increased by 0.97 per cent to 329.39 points, compared with 326.22 points a week earlier.
The SPI for consumption groups of Rs17,733-22,888; Rs22,889-29,517; Rs29,518-44,175; and above Rs44,175 rose by 1.09 per cent, 0.86 per cent, 0.79 per cent and 0.94 per cent, respectively.
Out of 51 items, prices of 23 items (45.1 per cent) increased, six items (11.76 per cent) decreased, while 22 items (43.14 per cent) remained unchanged during the week.
Major commodities recording week-on-week increases included onions (18.1 per cent), tomatoes (11.38 per cent), LPG (10.05 per cent), chicken (8.7 per cent), potatoes (8.11 per cent), electricity charges for Q1 (6.11 per cent), eggs (3.54 per cent), garlic (3.23 per cent), mutton (2.55 per cent), beef (1.52 per cent), georgette (0.38 per cent) and firewood (0.34 per cent).
Prices declined for bananas (4.5 per cent), wheat flour (1.0 per cent), sugar (0.29 per cent), gur (0.2 per cent), and pulse moong and rice IRRI-6/9 (0.17 per cent each).
On a YoY basis, notable increases were recorded in LPG (34.73 per cent), diesel (29.94 percent), gas charges for Q1 (29.85 per cent), wheat flour (25.76 per cent), petrol (25.75 percent), onions (25.07 per cent), chillies powder (15.2 per cent), beef (13.08 percent), mutton (12.41 per cent), powdered milk (10.1 per cent), rice basmati broken (6.51 per cent) and gur (6.31 per cent).
Meanwhile, prices declined for potatoes (45.71 per cent), pulse gram (17.54 per cent), eggs (13.63 per cent), garlic (12.92 per cent), salt powder (12.55 per cent), chicken (11.94 per cent), pulse masoor (11.62 per cent) and sugar (11.34 per cent) over the same period. —APP
