By Ayesha Saba

Price pressures intensified for low-income households in April 2026 as the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) recorded a double-digit increase on a year-on-year basis.

According to the “Monthly Review on Price Indices April 2026” released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics and available with Wealth Pakistan, SPI inflation for the lowest income quintile rose by 10.1% year-on-year in April, compared with 5.6% in March.

On a month-on-month basis, SPI increased by 2.0% in April, up from 0.7% recorded in March, indicating a faster pace of increase in the prices of essential commodities tracked under the index.

The SPI, which measures price movements of key essential items consumed by different income groups, showed consistent increases across all consumption quintiles. The combined SPI index recorded a year-on-year increase of 12.57% and a month-on-month rise of 3.62%, reflecting broad-based price pressures across income segments.

A quintile-wise breakdown shows that the lowest income group (quintile 1) recorded a year-on-year increase of 10.06%, while the second quintile saw a sharper rise of 12.51%. The third and fourth quintiles recorded increases of 11.11% and 11.02%, respectively, while the highest income group (quintile 5) experienced a 12.30% increase.

On a monthly basis, increases were also recorded across all quintiles. The lowest income group saw a rise of 2.05%, while the second and third quintiles recorded increases of 2.51% and 2.58%, respectively. The fourth quintile rose by 3.04%, while the highest quintile recorded the largest monthly increase of 4.32%.

Weekly SPI data for April shows fluctuations in price movements throughout the month. The combined index increased by 1.01% in the first week, followed by declines of 0.11%, 0.69%, and 0.33% in subsequent weeks, before rising again by 0.62% in the final week of April.

The data indicates that despite some weekly variations, the overall monthly trend remained upward, resulting in a significant year-on-year increase in the SPI.

The report also shows that SPI had recorded a decline of 3.6% year-on-year in April 2025, highlighting a sharp reversal in price trends over the past year.

The consistent rise in SPI across all quintiles reflects an increase in the cost of essential commodities, as captured in the official data for April 2026.

Credit: INP-WealthPk