ISLAMABAD: The weekly inflation, measured by Sensitive price Indicator (SPI), witnessed an increase of 2.78 per cent to jump to 41.54pc on a year-on-year basis for the week ended on Feb 23.
In previous week, the inflation increased by 2.89pc to reach 38.42pc. It is for the first time that inflation crossed 40pc mark in over five months.
During this week, major increase was observed in the prices of food items like bananas, chicken, sugar, cooking oil, vegetable ghee and tea prepared. A surge in prices of non-food items such as gas and cigarettes was also witnessed.
On the other hand, a slight decrease was observed in the prices of onions, eggs, tomatoes, garlic, LPG and pulse gram (0.21).
“During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 33 (64.71%) items increased, 06 (11.76%) items decreased and 12 (23.53%) items remained stable,” said PBS in its report.
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The upward trend of inflation continues as the South Asian country is taking measures to meet the conditions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for revival of the loan programme. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif warned that the inflation would further trigger after the approval of the IMF programme.
The federal government has also approved a ‘mini-budget’ to impose additional Rs170 billion taxes to boost revenue generation in line with the preconditions of the IMF.
