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       ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), posted a negative growth of 1.26 per cent year-on-year in the week ending on March 27 due to a decline in the price of perishable products.

       The SPI declined for the fourth week mainly due to decreased potato, onion, and chicken prices. It fell 0.15pc from the previous week, data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics showed on Friday.

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       The overall short-term inflation has also slowed due to the higher base of last year.

       Moreover, the prices remained stable for most products, excluding wheat flour.

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       However, the retail price of sugar and edible oil increased despite the decline in the international market. The government allowed record sugar exports, totalling 757,779 tonnes in the first eight months of FY25 compared to 33,101 tonnes a year ago.

       The latest revised estimates indicate a 2.3pc decrease in sugarcane production, totalling 85.62m tonnes, down from 87.64m tonnes last year.

       This may also push the sugar price in the coming months.

       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 saw a decline week-on-week included onions (4.68pc), bananas (4.27pc), eggs (3.87pc), garlic (2.23pc), potatoes (1.47pc), chicken (1.29pc), sugar (0.94pc) and pulse gram (0.67pc).

       The items whose prices increased the most over the previous week included tomatoes (9.62pc), LPG (1.17pc), lawn printed (0.62pc), pulse mash (0.56pc), gur (0.51pc), beef (0.30pc), long cloth (0.29pc), pulse masoor (0.20pc), mustard oil (0.13pc) and vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (0.10pc).

       However, on an annual basis, the items whose prices increased the most included ladies sandal (75.09pc), pulse moong (27.22pc), powdered milk (25.75pc), beef (21.37pc), sugar (18.12pc), pulse gram (17.71pc), vegetable ghee 1 kg (16.36pc), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (15.66pc), lawn printed (12.97pc), cooked daal (12.77pc), shirting (11.57pc) and georgette (11.20pc).

       In contrast, the prices of onions dropped 68.64pc, followed by wheat flour (33.33pc), chillies powder (20pc), electricity charges for Q1 (18.92pc), tea Lipton (16.98pc), pulse mash (13.35pc), tomatoes (12.08pc), pulse masoor (11.21pc), rice basmati broken (9.51pc), diesel (9.37pc), petrol (8.55pc) and LPG (1.82pc).

       Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2025