Qudsia Bano

Food items accounted for the bulk of weekly price increases recorded under the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the week ended January 08, 2026, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

The SPI, which measures short-term price movements of essential commodities, is based on prices of 51 items collected from 50 markets in 17 urban centres. The weekly analysis shows that food items constituted the majority of commodities that registered increases during the reporting period, contributing to the overall 0.12% week-on-week rise in the combined SPI.

According to the PBS executive summary, out of the 21 items that recorded price increases during the week, most belonged to the food category. Major food items showing weekly price increases included wheat flour, chicken, garlic, chilies powder, sugar, bread and rice basmati broken. These increases were among the key contributors to the upward movement in the SPI during the week.

Wheat flour recorded the highest weekly increase among food items, rising by 5.07%, followed by chicken at 2.86% and garlic at 2.44%. Other food items also registered moderate weekly increases, including chilies powder (1.01%), sugar (0.58%), bread (0.51%) and rice basmati broken (0.41%), according to PBS data.

In contrast, a smaller number of food items recorded weekly price declines during the same period. Items such as potatoes, onions, pulse gram, eggs, pulse mash, pulse masoor, bananas and tomatoes showed week-on-week decreases. However, the combined impact of food items registering increases outweighed the declines, resulting in a net upward movement in the food component of the SPI.

The PBS data further shows that non-food items accounted for a smaller share of weekly price increases. Among non-food items, increases were observed in liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), shirting and firewood, while prices of most other non-food items remained unchanged during the week.

The dominance of food items in weekly price increases is reflected across all consumption quintiles. All income groups recorded positive week-on-week SPI changes, indicating that food price movements had a broad-based impact on households.

Credit: INP-WealthPk