Weekly costs fall 0.48%, however year-on-year knowledge reveals necessities nonetheless squeezing low-income households
KARACHI:
The Delicate Worth Indicator (SP I) has elevated 4.18% year-on-year, reinforcing issues over Pakistan’s inflation outlook, as continued volatility in important shopper costs displays persistent cost-of-living strain on low- and middle-income households throughout the nation.
Based on the weekly SPI report launched by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) for the week ended January 22, 2026, costs of key meals and family commodities confirmed blended actions, underscoring the delicate stability between easing headline inflation and entrenched structural value pressures. The index, which tracks weekly value actions of 51 important gadgets throughout 50 markets in 17 city centres, continues to exhibit that inflationary stress is more and more concentrated in primary consumption classes fairly than discretionary items.
The Delicate Worth Index (SPI) for the week ending January 22, 2026, recorded a decline of 0.48%. The lower was largely pushed by sharp reductions within the costs of important gadgets, together with rooster (16.68%), potatoes (8.52%), onions (7.27%), LPG (3.54%), salt powder (1.52%), gur (1.00%), vegetable ghee 2.5 kg (0.87%), cooking oil 5 litres (0.53%), pulse masoor (0.27%), and cigarettes (0.11%). Conversely, notable value will increase have been noticed in tomatoes (9.83%), bananas (3.66%), wheat flour (2.27%), eggs (1.02%), firewood (0.56%), pulse mash (0.53%), pulse moong (0.43%), shirting (0.27%), pulse gram (0.16%), and sugar (0.14%). Throughout this era, out of 51 tracked gadgets, 12 gadgets (23.53%) recorded value will increase, 11 gadgets (21.57%) noticed value decreases, and 28 gadgets (54.90%) remained secure.
On a year-on-year foundation, the SPI reveals an general enhance of 4.18%. Vital annual value rises have been recorded in wheat flour (38.60%), eggs (35.99%), fuel prices for Q1 (29.85%), beef (12.75%), chilies powder (12.56%), firewood (10.83%), tomatoes (10.02%), bananas (9.94%), powdered milk (9.79%), gur (9.42%), garden printed (8.29%), and shirting (8.22%). Conversely, costs fell for a number of key gadgets, together with potatoes (47.26%), garlic (36.28%), onions (35.55%), pulse gram (29.79%), Lipton tea (17.79%), rooster (16.79%), pulse mash (12.57%), pulse masoor (9.75%), diesel (1.27%), and petrol (0.95%).
Meals gadgets remained the first drivers of weekly value modifications. Greens, pulses, edible oils, and staple meals gadgets recorded notable fluctuations, reflecting supply-side disruptions, transport prices, seasonal elements, and stock administration practices in wholesale markets. City centres, specifically, skilled renewed strain on vegetable costs as a consequence of weather-related provide constraints and logistical bottlenecks, whereas pulses and cooking oil costs remained elevated amid import dependence and the transmission of worldwide commodity costs.
The SPI knowledge additional indicated that low-income teams are being disproportionately affected, with important meals gadgets absorbing a bigger share of family earnings in comparison with higher-income segments. This distributional affect reinforces issues that inflation in Pakistan is changing into more and more regressive, inserting a heavier burden on weak households regardless of broader macroeconomic stabilisation efforts.
Non-food necessities additionally contributed to inflationary pressures. Vitality-linked gadgets, together with electrical energy prices and fuel-related inputs embedded in transport and distribution prices, continued to exert upward strain on costs.
