Prices of kitchen items up 10pc

[LahoreEstate]

Sunday, May 31, 2009
By Israr Khan

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) has said that the weekly inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI) covering 53 daily-use kitchen items, for the week ended on May 28 increased by 10.25 per cent compared with the corresponding week of the last fiscal year.

The government may have done nothing special, but it was the high base effect that has helped reduce inflation during the week under review. Due to this, the SPI inflation has been coming down for the last 10 weeks.

In the week ended on March 26, the SPI stood at 18.05 per cent, April 2 (16.69 per cent), April 9 (16.30 per cent), April 16 (15.02 per cent), April 23 (13.99 per cent), April 30 (13.28 per cent), May 7 (11.82 per cent), May 14 (11.20 per cent), May 21 (10.92 per cent) and May 28 (10.25 per cent).

According to the SPI bulletin, year-on-year the rise in prices of some necessities and kitchen items was exorbitant. These items were sugar, fresh milk, wheat, flour, milk powder, gur, curd, beef, mutton, chicken, onion, tomato and firewood.

The SPI, based on data collected from 17 centres, showed that prices of 15 items registered an increase, another 15 recorded a decline and 23 remained unchanged.

In a span of one week, prices of potatoes went up by 6.57 per cent to Rs17.68 per kg over the previous week, bananas up by 3.49 per cent to Rs43.92 per dozen, gur 2.12 per cent to Rs57.78 per kg, curd 1.43 per cent to Rs46.96 per kg, rice basmati broken 1.32 per cent to Rs42.35 per kg, fresh milk 1.16 per cent to Rs40.06 per litre, moong pulse (washed) 1.05 per cent to Rs48.21 per kg and mash pulse (washed) 1.02 per cent to Rs85.12 per kg.

Further analysis of the data revealed that on year-on-year basis, some items are dearer by double digits. These include; gur 83 per cent, sugar 49 per cent, beef 19 per cent, gram pulse 19 per cent, fresh milk 19 per cent, curd 18 per cent, mash pulse 17 per cent, and mutton 13 per cent over the corresponding week of the last fiscal.

Prices of 15 items decreased, yet compared to the prices of the corresponding week of last year, items which showed an increase in their prices were; tomatoes dearer by 50 per cent to Rs16.34 per kg, onions 36 per cent to Rs20.68 per kg, kerosene 25 per cent to Rs63 per litre, chicken (farm) 22 per cent to Rs104.60 per kg, wheat 19 per cent to Rs23.92 per kg, wheat flour 16 per cent to Rs26.9 per kg, firewood 16 per cent to Rs274 per 40 kg, and diesel by 12 per cent to Rs56.34 per litre.

Though the prices of 23 items remained unchanged, the prices of some items as compared to the corresponding week of the last year are still dearer by double digits. These items include plain bread and its price is up by 20 per cent to Rs25.50 each, packet tea 39 per cent to Rs100 per 250 gm, washing soap 12 per cent to Rs12.62 per cake and bath soap (lifebuoy) by 11 per cent to Rs22 per cake.

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