Pakistan’s weekly inflation nears 12% as flour prices jump

Pakistan’s short-term price index rose 0.57% in the week to October 8 and was 11.97% higher than a year earlier, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics said.

Prices rose for 20 of the 51 essential items monitored during the week. Six became cheaper and 25 were unchanged. Wheat flour recorded the largest weekly increase, at 5.69%, followed by chicken at 4.93% and gram pulse, or chickpeas, at 3.99%.

The bureau also reported that petrol and tomatoes each rose 2.4%, masoor pulse 1.29%, prepared tea 1.08%, cooked daal 0.98%, mash pulse 0.91% and liquefied petroleum gas 0.57%. Bananas fell 2.81% over the week and diesel declined 1.37%.

Compared with a year earlier, onions were up 100.24%, LPG 68.55%, first-quarter electricity 58.59%, petrol 47.52% and diesel 42.52%. Wheat flour rose 32.6%. Potato prices dropped 39.51%, tomatoes 37.07% and sugar 22.44%.

The Sensitive Price Indicator is calculated weekly from prices for 51 items collected in 50 markets across 17 cities. Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal told the National Price Monitoring Committee he was concerned about increases in essential goods, especially flour, and directed provincial and district administrations to monitor supplies, market arrivals, stockpiling, profiteering and unjustified price rises.

Dawn reported that continued increases in fuel prices and higher transport costs were contributing to pressure on food prices. The paper said the government had continued raising petrol and diesel prices while transport costs had affected staples including onions, tomatoes and other vegetables.