During the week, the Sensitive Price Indicator stood at 335.84 points compared to 337.99 a week earlier.

PBS data showed that the SPI still posted a 4.00 percent year-on-year increase, reflecting continued price stress despite the weekly decline.

The SPI tracks 51 essential items across 17 urban centres and covers all major expenditure groups based on the 2015-16 base year.

For the lowest consumption group earning up to Rs17,732, the SPI dropped by 0.96 percent to 327.70 from 330.88 points. Other groups also saw declines: 0.88 percent for Rs17,733–22,888, 0.73 percent for Rs22,889–29,517, 0.69 percent for Rs29,518–44,175 and 0.53 percent for those above Rs44,175.

Out of 51 monitored items, 13 became costlier, 15 got cheaper and 23 remained unchanged during the week, showing a mixed price pattern.

Major weekly decreases came from tomatoes at 30.11 percent, onions at 12.41 percent, potatoes at 6.92 percent, chicken at 4.46 percent, sugar at 3.31 percent, diesel at 1.67 percent, pulse gram at 1.55 percent, pulse masoor at 1.33 percent, gur at 1.00 percent and petrol at 0.73 percent.

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Items with higher prices included LPG at 3.50 percent, garlic at 1.86 percent, cooking oil 5 litre at 1.54 percent, eggs at 0.81 percent, bread at 0.57 percent, vegetable ghee 1 kg at 0.40 percent, powdered milk at 0.36 percent, bananas and wheat flour at 0.28 percent each and cigarettes at 0.25 percent.

On a year-on-year basis, the strongest increases were seen in sugar at 37.49 percent, gas charges for Q1 at 29.85 percent, wheat flour at 17.50 percent, gur at 15.06 percent, beef at 13.47 percent, firewood at 12.59 percent, bananas at 11.06 percent, powdered milk at 9.03 percent, diesel at 8.42 percent, lawn printed at 8.29 percent, cooking oil 5 litre at 8.19 percent and vegetable ghee 2.5 kg at 7.59 percent.

Prices that declined year-on-year included potatoes at 40.47 percent, garlic at 38.51 percent, tomatoes at 31.51 percent, onions at 29.87 percent, pulse gram at 29.54 percent, tea Lipton at 17.79 percent, pulse mash at 13.82 percent, electricity charges for Q1 at 8.40 percent and salt powder at 5.13 percent.

The report shows a small drop in overall inflation, but the rise in LPG and daily-use items keeps households uneasy. Some vegetables became cheaper, yet kitchen essentials still pushed costs up. People will watch the coming weeks to see if this relief stays or fades again.