KARACHI:
The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the week ended August 13, 2025 recorded a year-on-year (YoY) jump of 2.21% and a week-on-week (WoW) rise of 0.31%, reflecting inflationary pressure in essential commodities.
The SPI, which tracks prices of 51 key items across 50 markets in 17 cities, serves as a short-term gauge of consumer price movements.
On a weekly basis, the price increases were led by key perishable and protein items. Tomatoes saw the sharpest surge, jumping 12.62%, followed by chicken (4.68%), eggs (2.11%), onions (1.98%) and garlic (1.60%).
Among staple commodities, wheat flour rose 1.44%, gur (jaggery) 1.04% and pulse mash 0.52%. Firewood edged up 0.17%, adding to household energy costs.
Conversely, notable declines were recorded in bananas (-2.52%), potatoes (-1.65%) and pulses, including pulse gram (-0.84%), pulse moong (-0.73%) and pulse masoor (-0.29%). Other items registering minor dips included liquefied petroleum gas (LPG, -0.36%), 1kg vegetable ghee (-0.10%), powdered salt (-0.06%) and Irri-6/9 rice (-0.04%).
Out of the 51 items monitored, prices of 17 items (33.33%) increased, nine items (17.65%) fell and 25 items (49.02%) remained unchanged compared to the previous week, underscoring a mixed but slightly inflationary trend in the food and household goods market.
On an annual basis, the SPI’s 2.21% rise was driven by steep hikes in non-perishable items and services. Footwear prices surged, with ladies’ sandals rising 55.62%, while gas charges for Q1 rose 29.85% and sugar prices climbed 22.83%.
Other significant YoY increases were seen in beef (13.54%), pulse moong (13.32%), 2.5kg vegetable ghee (11.97%), gur (11.65%), firewood (11.41%), 1kg vegetable ghee (11.25%), cooked beef (8.86%), cooked daal (8.22%) and diesel (7.38%).
However, the annual comparison also highlighted a substantial relief in some essential food items. Onion prices dropped 52.10%, tomatoes 34.33%, garlic 26.71%, pulse mash 22.62% and wheat flour 19.41%.
Lipton tea prices eased 17.93%, potatoes 17.80% and pulse gram 10.88%. Notably, electricity charges for Q1 were down 10.02% and LPG prices slipped 5.16%, offering some respite to consumers.
Across consumption quintiles, the WoW SPI change was uniform at around 0.31-0.33%, indicating the inflationary impact was broadly felt across income groups. On a YoY basis, the lowest income group (Q1) experienced a 2.22% rise in prices, while the highest quintile (Q5) saw a smaller increase of 1.46%.
The data suggests that while headline inflationary pressure remains relatively contained compared to past years, certain essential items — particularly protein-rich, condiments and some utilities — continue to post strong price growth, which could weigh on household budgets if the trend persists in the coming weeks.