KARACHI: The price of chicken saw a significant hike in Karachi and other major towns of Sindh ahead of Eid 2024.
Profiteers in Karachi were selling chicken meat for about Rs800 per kilogramme in response to rising demand, as opposed to the commissioner’s regulated price of Rs666/kg.
The local administration’s attempt to help locals fast during Ramadan also failed, since profiteers continued to sell vital supplies at high rates throughout the month.
While the officially published rates for chicken meat and live chicken were Rs666/kg and Rs428/kg, respectively, citizens protested about the commodity’s unavailability at these prices.
They criticized the absence of government action to limit profiteering and give much-needed relief to civilians during Ramadan.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) announced that weekly inflation assessed by the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) increased by 0.96 percent for the combined consumption categories for the week ending April 4.
According to the PBS statistics, the SPI for the week under examination in the aforementioned category was 326.29 points, compared to 323.20 points the previous week.
The SPI for the combined consumption group increased by 29.45% compared to the same week previous year.
During the week, 16 (31.37%) of the 51 goods’ prices climbed, 13 (25.49%) of them fell, and 22 (43.14%) stayed steady.
Bananas (3.57%), wheat flour (2.68%), eggs and LPG (1.89%), fuel (1.18%), gur (0.63%), sugar (0.41%), mustard oil (0.26%), pulse masoor (0.25%), and potatoes (0.23%) were among the commodities with lower average costs week after week.
On a year-over-year basis, the commodities that saw a drop were ladies sandal (12.52%), tomatoes (11.93%), gents sandal (8.70%), petrol (3.45%), chicken (2.99%), long cloth (2.23%), onion (1.30%), bread (1.03%), beef (0.75%), garlic (0.70%), mutton (0.41%), and rice basmati broken.
Maria Ghanchi