Weekly Inflation in Pakistan Falls 0.35% as Tomatoes Jump 35% (SPI, 29 October 2026)

Weekly inflation in Pakistan fell 0.35% in the week ended Thursday 29 October 2026, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) says. Its Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) dropped to 373.51 from 374.84. Tomatoes jumped 34.91% in a week, but cheaper electricity for the lowest slab, chicken, eggs and flour pulled the index down.

The yearly rate eased to 11.32% from 11.85% a week earlier. The SPI tracks 51 everyday items in 50 markets across 17 cities, so it is the quickest official read of household prices. We read the PBS release and its full price annex on 31 October 2026. Below are the items that moved, what each income group faced, and how this week compares with the last ten.

The SPI fell 0.35% in the week to 29 October 2026

The combined SPI stood at 373.51 for the week ended 29 October 2026, down 0.35% from 374.84 on 22 October. Against the same week of 2025, when it was 335.53, prices were 11.32% higher. Of the 51 items, 15 rose, 12 fell and 24 did not change.

This is the first weekly fall since the week to 15 October. The week before, the index rose 0.65%, mostly because LPG jumped 22.44%. That LPG spike has now eased a little, which you can see in the item list below. Last week's details are in our 22 October SPI report.

Tomatoes rose 34.91% while chicken and eggs got cheaper

Tomatoes rose 34.91% in one week, from Rs 93.17 to Rs 125.70 a kilo on the national average. Potatoes rose 3.27% and diesel 2.53%. On the other side, electricity for the lowest slab fell 3.92%, chicken 2.95% and eggs 2.81%.

These are averages across 17 cities. Your local market can be well above or below them, and the gap is widest for vegetables. The PBS annex shows tomatoes quoted from Rs 50 to Rs 200 a kilo across the 17 cities this week, and live chicken from Rs 388 to Rs 540. Compare city prices for the same items with the city-by-city price check.

Cheaper power for the lowest slab did the most to pull the index down

Electricity for the lowest consumption slab fell from Rs 7.66 to Rs 7.36 a unit, and PBS's own impact column shows it took 0.29 points off the combined index. Chicken took off 0.17 and LPG 0.09. Tomatoes added back 0.21 points, the biggest push upward.

The impact figures matter because a big percentage move in a small item can do less than a small move in a heavy one. Tomatoes carry a weight of about 0.98% in the combined index, while lowest-slab electricity carries about 12.93%. So a 3.92% fall in power outweighed a 34.91% jump in tomatoes.

Milk, the heaviest food item, rose 0.48% to Rs 219.98 a litre. Beef, mutton, cooking oil and the gas charge for the lowest slab did not move at all this week.

The richest group saw the biggest weekly fall, 0.41%

All five income groups saw prices fall this week. The top group, spending above Rs 44,175 a month, saw the largest fall at 0.41%. The lowest group, spending up to Rs 17,732, saw the smallest, only 0.07%, because the foods it buys most did not fall as much.

Over the year, the top group still faces the steepest rise, 12.13%, because fuel and LPG weigh more in its basket. The way PBS builds these groups is set out in our SPI income group explainer.

LPG is still 106.86% dearer than a year ago

Year on year, LPG is up 106.86%, lowest-slab electricity 52.38%, diesel 45.13% and petrol 43.61%. Flour is 34.87% dearer and chicken 31.72%. Some staples are cheaper than a year ago: potatoes are down 38.67%, tomatoes 27.99%, eggs 26.70% and sugar 25.21%.

The yearly SPI rate has stayed between 11.32% and 11.97% for six weeks running. That is far above the 8.35% recorded in the week to 3 September. It is also a different measure from the monthly consumer price index, so the two rarely match. The full difference is explained in Pakistan's four inflation numbers.

How to read the weekly SPI yourself

PBS posts the SPI every Friday on pbs.gov.pk, usually by the afternoon, as a short executive summary and a full price annex. The annex has city prices for every item. These steps take about five minutes.

1. Open the PBS home page and find "Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) for the week ended on" with Thursday's date.
2. Open the release and download the Executive Summary PDF for the headline numbers.
3. Read the first table: the "Combined" column is the national figure.
4. For a single item, open the Annex PDF and find it in the city table.
5. Compare with the same week last year using the "Cor. Week" column.

Common questions

What is the SPI inflation rate for the week ended 29 October 2026?

The SPI fell 0.35% in the week and stood 11.32% higher than a year earlier, PBS figures show.

Why did weekly inflation fall this week?

Electricity for the lowest slab fell 3.92%, and chicken, eggs, flour and LPG got cheaper. Those falls outweighed a 34.91% jump in tomatoes.

What is the tomato price in the SPI this week?

The 17-city average was Rs 125.70 a kilo on 29 October 2026, up from Rs 93.17 a week earlier.

Is the SPI the same as Pakistan's inflation rate?

No. The SPI covers 51 essential items weekly. The headline inflation rate is the monthly CPI, which PBS publishes in the first days of each month.

When is the next SPI release?

PBS normally publishes the next SPI on Friday 6 November 2026, for the week ending Thursday 5 November.

How we verified this

What we checked, where we read it, and what we could not confirm.

We read the PBS release page and both PDFs on 31 October 2026: the SPI executive summary for the week ended 29 October 2026 and its price annex. The PBS home page dates the release 30 October 2026. Every price, weight and impact figure is from those files. The six-week range and the comparison with our 22 October report are our reading of the same tables. The next release date is the usual PBS pattern, not an announced date.