KARACHI: Wheat flour prices have witnessed sharp increase in open markets of Sindh, particularly in main cities of the province including Karachi and Hyderabad as compared to other markets across the country as 20-Kg bag of flour is sold at Rs2140.
Prices of flour are higher in Karachi, Hyderabad than other cities.
The price of a 20kg wheat flour bag in Karachi was recorded at Rs2140, which is Rs1160 higher compared to other markets such as Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Islamabad.
In Hyderabad, the 20-Kg flour bag costs Rs2080, in Khuzdar Rs1950, in Quetta and Larkana Rs1920, in Sukkur Rs1800, in Peshawar Rs980, Bannu, Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
According to the data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the price of flour recorded an increase of Rs180 on 20-kg bag in Karachi during the last week, while Rs140 in Hyderabad.
Moreover, the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the week ended September 01, 2022, surged to an all-time high of 45.50 percent on Year-on-Year (YoY) basis mainly due to increase in prices of food and non-food items.
The SPI for the week ended September 01, 2022, recorded an increase of 1.31 percent on week-on-week (WoW) basis due to increase in food and non-food items.
The YoY trend depicts an increase of 45.50 percent mainly due to increase in prices of onions (240.15 percent), tomatoes (219.99 percent), diesel (114.08 percent), petrol (98.73 percent), pulse masoor (82.44 percent), cooking oil-5 litre (70.60 percent), mustard oil (67.50 percent), washing soap (64.81 percent), vegetable ghee-2.5 kg (63.70 percent), electricity for q1 (63.01 percent), vegetable ghee-1 kg (61.16 percent), pulse gram (58.54 percent), pulse mash (49.36 percent) and LPG (45.23 percent), while a decrease was observed in the prices of chilies powder (43.42 percent), sugar (18.20 percent) and gur (1.75 percent).
According to the latest data, the SPI went up from 219.97 percent during the week ended August 25, 2022, to 222.85 percent during the week under review.
The SPI for the consumption groups up to Rs. 17,732, Rs. 17,733 to Rs. 22,888, Rs. 22,889 to Rs. 29,517, Rs. 29,518 to Rs. 44,175 and for above Rs. 44,175 increased by 1.63 percent, 1.53 percent, 1.43 percent, 1.39 percent and 1.20 percent respectively.
During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 31 (60.79 percent) items increased, three (05.88 percent) items decreased, and 17 (33.33 percent) items remained stable, said the PBS.
