In the week ending on December 28, the annual short-term inflation experienced a slight increase, reaching 43.25 percent, primarily driven by a substantial surge in gas rates, as indicated by official data on Friday.

This marks the seventh consecutive week where weekly inflation has remained above 41 percent, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

On an annual basis, notable increases in the prices of various items include gas (1,109 percent), cigarettes (93 percent), chili powder (81.7 percent), wheat flour (73.8 percent), garlic (70.7 percent), tomatoes (65.3 percent), IRRI-6/9 and broken basmati rice (58.5 percent), gents sponge chappal (58 percent), and sugar (54.3 percent).

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Conversely, the prices of certain items experienced a decrease year-on-year, with onions dropping by 12.6 percent, followed by mustard oil (-5.2 percent), vegetable ghee (1.14 percent), and bananas (0.20 percent).

The Short-Term, or weekly, inflation is gauged through the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), a basket of goods and services. The SPI currently stands at 311.14, compared to 310 in the preceding week and 217.20 a year ago.

This index, which includes 51 items collected from 50 markets in 17 cities, is computed on a weekly basis to assess the prices of essential commodities and services at shorter intervals.

On a weekly basis, the SPI inflation recorded a 0.37 percent increase. Data indicates that prices of 15 items increased, nine items decreased, and 27 items remained stable compared to the previous week.

Items experiencing the highest week-on-week price increases included onions (15.2 percent), chicken (4.8 percent), moong pulse (2.9 percent), gram pulse (2.9 percent), sugar (1.35 percent), bananas (1.05 percent), masoor pulse (0.78 percent), and maash pulse (0.54 percent).

In contrast, items witnessing the most significant price drops over the previous week included potatoes (8.6 percent), tomatoes (1.01 percent), vegetable ghee (0.6 percent), cooking oil (0.44 percent), eggs (0.4 percent), mustard oil (0.24 percent), gur (0.19 percent), and garlic (0.15 percent).

The annual SPI inflation reached a record 48.35 percent in early May but then decelerated to as low as 24.4 percent in late August before surging past 40 percent during the week ending on Nov 16.