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       ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), rose by 4.07 per cent week-on-week ending July 24, driven primarily by a sharp uptick in the retail prices of vegetables and petroleum products.

       This marks the steepest weekly increase in recent times, primarily attributed to the surge in petroleum prices and their cascading impact on domestic costs. The government has significantly increased petroleum rates over the past month, which, alongside elevated transport fares, has escalated the cost of transporting perishable goods.

       The SPI-based inflation rate recorded a partial reversal in the past few months owing to rising energy prices. It, however, increased by 2.22pc year-on-year, official data showed on Friday.

       The extraordinary spike in the retail prices of sugar, petrol, diesel and meat also contributed to reversing the trend during the past weeks under review. The prices of tomatoes, onions, and potatoes are also rising due to rising transport costs.

       The retail price of sugar in the market reached Rs200 per kg.

       Fuel, transport costs push SPI to steepest rise; sugar hits Rs200/kg

       The overall short-term inflation rate has also slowed due to the higher base of last year. Moreover, the prices remained stable for most products, excluding wheat flour and a few perishables.

       The weekly inflation hit a record 48.35pc year-on-year in early May 2023, but then decelerated as low as 24.4pc in late August 2023 before surging past 40pc during the week ending Nov 16, 2023.

       The items whose prices increased the most over the previous week included gas charges for Q1 (29.85pc), tomatoes (22.93pc), electricity charges for Q1 (21.46pc), eggs (3.96pc), garlic (1.39pc), cigarettes (0.51pc), beef (0.46pc), rice basmati broken (0.45pc), powdered milk (0.29pc), energy saver (0.23pc), curd (0.17pc) and milk fresh (0.16pc).

       The items whose prices saw a decline week-on-week included chicken (7.95pc), sugar (4.25pc), onions (3.05pc), bananas (2.81pc), LPG (2.09pc), potatoes (1.82pc), wheat flour (1.19pc), pulse moong (0.43pc) and pulse gram (0.32pc).

       However, on an annual basis, the items whose prices increased the most included ladies sandal (55.62pc), gas charges for Q1 (29.85pc), sugar (21.89pc), pulse moong (16.42pc), beef (14.08pc), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (12.46pc), vegetable ghee 1 kg (12.17pc), gur (11.30pc), eggs (10.70pc), firewood (10.52pc), cooked daal (9.47pc) and lawn printed (7.32pc).

       In contrast, the prices of onions dropped 49.13pc, followed by tomatoes (30.20pc), electricity charges for Q1 (24.23pc), garlic (23.64pc), wheat flour (23.21pc), pulse mash (20.76pc), tea Lipton (17.93pc), potatoes (15.11pc), pulse masoor (8.86pc) and petrol (1.24pc).

       Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2025