Pakistan’s finance ministry had projected inflation would remain within a 5% to 6% range in January. PHOTO:FILE <\/p>\n
KARACHI: <\/p>\n
Pakistan’s weekly inflation surged to a 75-week high, with the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) rising 12.16% year-on-year (YoY) for the week ended April 16, 2026, signalling intense price pressure despite a temporary week-on-week (WoW) decline, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) and estimates from Topline Research.<\/p>\n
The latest reading marks the highest annual increase in over a year, underscoring that underlying inflationary momentum remains strong even as short-term price movements show signs of easing. On a WoW basis, the SPI declined by 0.69%, snapping a six-week rising streak, primarily due to a sharp drop in fuel and select food prices.<\/p>\n
The YoY surge was largely driven by steep increases in energy and essential food items. Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) prices soared by over 60% compared to the same period of last year, while petrol and diesel rose by 44.10% and 49.22%, respectively.<\/p>\n
Among food items, tomatoes recorded an exceptional increase of 69.35%, followed by onions (42.67%) and wheat flour (28.80%), reflecting continued supply-side pressure and cost pass-through effects.<\/p>\n
Meat prices also remained elevated, with mutton and beef registering double-digit increases of 14.67% and 13.27%, respectively. Other key household items, such as powdered milk and garlic, also posted notable gains, contributing to the broad-based rise in inflation.<\/p>\n
Despite the sharp annual increase, the weekly decline provided some respite to consumers. The WoW drop was mainly led by a significant reduction in fuel prices, particularly diesel, which fell by 25.77%. Prices of chicken declined by 10.07%, while onions, wheat flour, and petrol also recorded notable decreases of 6.63%, 3.34%, and 3.10%, respectively. Bananas and garlic further contributed to the downward trend.<\/p>\n
However, the relief was partially offset by increases in perishable food items. Tomato prices rose by 6.27% during the week, while bread and eggs increased by 3.27% and 2.09%, respectively, highlighting continued volatility in food markets.<\/p>\n
A breakdown across consumption groups indicates that inflationary pressure remains widespread. The lowest income group experienced a 9.82% YoY increase, while the highest quintile saw inflation at 12.02%, suggesting that price pressure is not confined to any single income segment.<\/p>\n
It is pertinent to mention that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 7.3% YoY in March 2026 as compared to a rise of 7% in the previous month and 0.7% in March 2025. On a month-on-month basis, it rose by 1.2% in March 2026 as compared to an increase of 0.3% in the previous month and an increase of 0.9% in March 2025.<\/p>\n
The urban CPI inflation spiked 7.4% YoY in March 2026 as compared to an increase of 6.8% in the previous month and a rise of 1.2% in March 2025. Month-on-month, it went up by 1.3% in March 2026 as compared to 0.3% in the previous month and 0.8% in March 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pakistan’s finance ministry had projected inflation would remain within a 5% to 6% range in January. PHOTO:FILE KARACHI:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,184,85,46,5345],"class_list":{"0":"post-398451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-latest"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}