Pakistan’s weekly inflation rate experienced a decline of 1.34% for the week concluding on September 18, primarily attributed to enhanced availability of perishable goods like tomatoes and onions, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) announced.

The PBS data highlighted noteworthy weekly price drops for tomatoes (23.11%), chicken (12.74%), initial quarter electricity costs (6.21%), bananas (5.07%), wheat flour (2.60%), onions (1.17%), lentils (0.64%), chickpeas (0.47%), and garlic (0.46%).

Conversely, prices of certain essential commodities saw an uptick, including diesel (1.06%), eggs (0.91%), broken basmati rice (0.84%), georgette cloth (0.83%), IRRI-6/9 rice (0.78%), firewood (0.59%), mutton and beef (0.31%), vegetable ghee (1kg, 0.25%), energy-saving bulbs (0.23%), and mung lentils (0.10%). In total, throughout the week under observation, prices of 18 essential goods escalated, 14 diminished, and 19 held steady.

The Sensitive Price Index (SPI) revealed varying inflationary patterns across income brackets. For families with monthly earnings up to PKR 17,732, inflation decelerated by 1.43% to 3.82%. For those within the PKR 17,733-22,888 range, it dipped by 1.59% to 4.02%, while the PKR 22,889-29,517 group witnessed a 1.34% fall to 4.89%.

Correspondingly, inflation for households earning PKR 29,518-44,175 receded by 1.31% to 4.97%, and for those with monthly incomes exceeding PKR 44,176, inflation lessened by 1.23% to 3.47%.