SPI inflation at 11.32% in last week of October: tomatoes up 35% in a week, chicken and eggs cheaper

Short-term inflation in Pakistan stood at 11.32% year on year in the week ending Thursday 29 October 2026, down from 11.85% a week earlier, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said in its weekly Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) on Friday. Week on week, the index fell 0.35%, helped by cheaper chicken, eggs and flour and a dip in the lowest electricity slab, even as tomatoes jumped by more than a third, Dawn reported.

The SPI tracks 51 essential items in 50 markets across 17 cities. This week 15 items got dearer, 12 got cheaper and 24 did not move.

What got dearer this week

What got cheaper

Over the year: fuel and power still lead

Against the same week of 2025, the biggest increases are all energy: LPG up 106.86%, the lowest electricity slab up 52.38%, diesel up 45.13% and petrol up 43.61%. Wheat flour is 34.87% dearer and chicken 31.72%. On the other side, potatoes are 38.67% cheaper than a year ago, tomatoes 27.99%, eggs 26.70% and sugar 25.21%.

That split explains why the weekly number has stayed in double digits for several weeks: fuel feeds into transport, bread and almost everything trucked to a market, and it has kept rising. Dawn noted that the government has continued to raise petrol and diesel prices rather than cut the petroleum levy.

What it means for your kitchen budget

• Vegetables: tomato prices swing with supply from Sindh and Balochistan, and a 35% weekly jump usually eases within a few weeks as new crop arrives. Onions and potatoes are still well below last year.
• Protein: chicken and eggs both fell this week, the cheapest moment in a while to stock up on eggs, which are a quarter cheaper than a year ago.
• Fuel: diesel's weekly rise shows up in transport fares and goods prices first. Track the daily reading on our diesel price page and petrol price page (PSO's ex-depot Karachi price).

What comes next

The SPI is a weekly snapshot of essentials. The monthly Consumer Price Index for October, which covers a far wider basket, is due from the PBS in the first days of November. The finance ministry has forecast October CPI inflation at 9.5% to 10.5%, close to September. See our CPI inflation page for the monthly trend, and check what fuel now costs you on your own route with the fuel cost calculator.