ISLAMABAD: Short-term inflation in Pakistan fell by 0.46 percent in the week ended 12 November 2026, mainly because of lower petrol and diesel prices, according to the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday.
The combined SPI dropped to 372.90 points from 374.61 a week earlier. Compared with the same week last year, prices were 11.21 percent higher. The index tracks 51 essential items in 17 cities. Of these, 19 became more expensive, nine became cheaper and 23 were unchanged.
Petrol led the decline with a fall of 7.42 percent, followed by diesel at 6.10 percent. Onions, bananas, gur, sugar, powdered milk and moong and gram pulses also eased. On the other side, tomatoes rose 12.06 percent, eggs 5.98 percent and potatoes 2.42 percent, while garlic, chicken, firewood, wheat flour, masoor pulse, beef and LPG also went up.
The weekly change differed across income groups. The index for the lowest group, with monthly spending up to Rs17,732, edged up 0.03 percent, while the index for the highest group, above Rs44,175, fell 0.68 percent.
Background
In the previous week, ended 5 November, the SPI had risen 0.29 percent and year-on-year inflation stood at 12.31 percent, so the annual rate has now eased by just over one percentage point. The decline follows the government’s recent cuts in fuel prices, including the latest reduction of Rs3 per litre in petrol and Rs7 in diesel, reported by NEN.
On a yearly basis, the sharpest increases were in LPG at 111.35 percent, tomatoes at 78.94 percent, quarterly electricity charges at 52.38 percent and wheat flour at 36.14 percent. Potatoes, sugar and eggs are cheaper than a year ago, by 36.41, 24.54 and 23.29 percent respectively.
What This Means for You
Fuel savings are the main relief this week: a 7.42 percent drop means a motorist who spent Rs1,000 on petrol last week would spend about Rs926 for the same amount now. Kitchen costs moved the other way, as an item worth Rs100 in tomatoes last week now costs about Rs112. Over the year, LPG has more than doubled in price, which matters to households that cook on gas cylinders.
The PBS publishes the SPI every week, so the next reading will show whether the fuel-led relief continues.
Sources: Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Associated Press of Pakistan, ARY News
Featured image: Photo: Tamourkhan / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
