Assalam-o-Alaikum my dear readers! How are you all? I hope you are well. Today I want to talk about something that touches every home in Pakistan: the prices of daily food items. The government has released new numbers about inflation, and I will explain them in very simple words so that even a small child can understand.
What Is Inflation? (Very Simple)
First, let me explain what inflation means. Inflation means the prices of things are going up. When your mother goes to the market with 1000 rupees, inflation decides how much she can buy with that money. If prices go up, she can buy less. If prices go down, she can buy more. Simple, right?
The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, which is the government’s office that counts prices, releases a report every week. It is called the Sensitive Price Indicator, or SPI. Think of it like a big shopping basket. The government picks 51 daily-use items, like tomatoes, onions, flour, chicken, eggs, petrol, and sugar. Every week, they check the prices of these 51 items in markets across the country. Then they tell us if prices went up or down.
What the New Weekly Report Says
Now, the new report is for the week that ended on October 15. The good news is that weekly inflation fell by 0.04%. This means prices went down a tiny bit this week compared to last week. It is a very small drop, but a drop is a drop, and we should be happy about it.
But wait, my friends, there is also news that needs our attention. Even though prices fell a little this week, they are still 11.38% higher than the same week last year. This means if something cost 100 rupees last year, it now costs about 111 rupees. So life is still more expensive than last year, even with this week’s small relief.
What Became Cheaper This Week
Let me now tell you which items became cheaper this week. The biggest relief came from tomatoes. Tomato prices fell by 23.05% in just one week. That is a very big drop. If you like tomato in your salan, this is good news for your kitchen. Onion prices fell by 4.90%. Bananas became cheaper by 2.59%. Petrol prices went down by 0.70%, broken basmati rice by 0.65%, sugar by 0.62%, and gur, which is jaggery, by 0.36%. So 7 out of 51 items became cheaper this week.
Now the items that became more expensive this week. Pulse gram, which we call kala chana, went up by 4.97%. Wheat flour became 3.36% more expensive. This is important because roti is the main food in almost every Pakistani home. Chicken prices went up by 3.31%. Eggs became 0.99% costlier. Pulse mash went up by 0.98% and pulse masoor by 0.95%. Firewood, diesel, LPG, and prepared tea also became more expensive. In total, 23 out of 51 items became costlier, and 21 items stayed at the same price.
The Yearly Picture: More Serious
Now let us look at the yearly picture, which is more serious. Compared to last year, onion prices have gone up by a shocking 75.19%. This means onions cost almost double what they cost last year. LPG, the gas we use for cooking in many homes, went up by 68.95%. Electricity charges went up by 58.59%. Petrol is 49.60% more expensive than last year, and diesel is 43.98% costlier. Wheat flour is up by 35.13%, chicken by 20.77%, chilli powder by 15.55%, mutton by 14.90%, and beef by 12.27%. Even plain bread became 9.02% more expensive.
But it is not all bad news for the year. Some items became cheaper than last year. Tomatoes are 63.65% cheaper than last year. Potatoes fell by 39.93%. Sugar is down by 23.20%. Eggs are 19.83% cheaper than last year, and masoor pulses are down by 8.97%.
What Does This Mean for Your Family?
So what does all this mean for a normal family? Let me explain with a simple example. Imagine a family that spends 20,000 rupees per month on food and daily items last year. This year, the same items would cost them about 22,276 rupees. That is 2,276 rupees extra every month, just because of inflation. For a poor family, this is a very big burden. This is why inflation is not just a number on TV. It is about real food on real tables.
The report also shows that inflation hits different families differently. Richer families feel petrol prices more because they drive cars. Poorer families feel flour and vegetable prices more because food takes a bigger part of their small income. This is something the government must think about very carefully.
What Can We Do as Smart Shoppers?
Now, what can we do as common people? We cannot control the market, but we can be smart shoppers. Buy seasonal vegetables because they are cheaper. Tomatoes are cheap right now, so this is a good time to use more tomatoes in cooking. Plan your weekly shopping and avoid waste. A lot of food is wasted in our homes, and wasting food is like throwing money in the dustbin.
My dear readers, I also wrote about the petrol price cut that happened this week. The government reduced petrol by Rs 3.63 per litre. You can read that full article here: Petrol Price Cut by Rs 3.63 — New Rates From Today. That small petrol cut is one reason the weekly inflation number looks a little better this week. I also wrote about the wheat situation in Sindh, where the government released cheap wheat but millers refused it. You can read it here: Sindh’s Wheat Fight. Wheat flour prices rising by 3.36% this week is connected to that story.
Here at Pak Unfiltered, I believe numbers should be explained in a way that a common person can understand and use. Inflation is not just for experts on TV. It is about your kitchen, your pocket, and your family’s dinner table.
For more details, you can read the reports by TechJuice, Abb Takk News, and Customs Today. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics website has the official data.
I hope this article helped you understand the price situation. If you have any questions, please ask me. I am always here for you.
Take care, and spend wisely. To contact us, visit: https://pakunfiltered.com/contact-us/. And do share your questions in the comments — I read them all.
