The monthly grocery bill, city by city
A month of household staples priced every week at official PBS prices in 17 cities — and what the same basket cost a year ago.
National basket cost · weekly since July 2023 · rupees
Cities ranked by basket cost
| City | Basket now | A year ago | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Islamabad | Rs 25,191 | Rs 22,131 | +13.8% |
| Peshawar | Rs 24,556 | Rs 21,943 | +11.9% |
| Karachi | Rs 24,094 | Rs 21,292 | +13.2% |
| Rawalpindi | Rs 23,757 | Rs 20,774 | +14.4% |
| Khuzdar | Rs 23,143 | Rs 20,635 | +12.2% |
| Hyderabad | Rs 23,121 | Rs 20,681 | +11.8% |
| Larkana | Rs 22,767 | Rs 21,276 | +7.0% |
| Quetta | Rs 22,631 | Rs 20,451 | +10.7% |
| Sialkot | Rs 21,852 | Rs 18,549 | +17.8% |
| Sukkur | Rs 21,677 | Rs 19,464 | +11.4% |
| Bannu | Rs 21,642 | Rs 19,158 | +13.0% |
| Gujranwala | Rs 21,592 | Rs 19,472 | +10.9% |
| Multan | Rs 20,972 | Rs 19,334 | +8.5% |
| Bahawalpur | Rs 20,927 | Rs 19,059 | +9.8% |
| Lahore | Rs 20,772 | Rs 19,108 | +8.7% |
| Faisalabad | Rs 20,532 | Rs 19,653 | +4.5% |
| Sargodha | Rs 19,550 | Rs 18,368 | +6.4% |
Price your own basket · national average prices
| Item | Quantity | Price now | A year ago | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wheat flour | Rs 2,875 | — | Rs 5,750 | |
| Basmati rice (broken) | Rs 221 | — | Rs 1,105 | |
| Masoor pulse | Rs 267 | — | Rs 267 | |
| Gram pulse | Rs 287 | — | Rs 287 | |
| Vegetable ghee | Rs 1,571 | — | Rs 3,143 | |
| Sugar | Rs 143 | — | Rs 572 | |
| Fresh milk | Rs 220 | — | Rs 6,605 | |
| Eggs | Rs 261 | — | Rs 522 | |
| Chicken (live broiler) | Rs 384 | — | Rs 1,536 | |
| Potatoes | Rs 51 | — | Rs 257 | |
| Onions | Rs 192 | — | Rs 770 | |
| Tomatoes | Rs 158 | — | Rs 474 | |
| Tea | Rs 465 | — | Rs 931 | |
| Salt | Rs 62 | — | Rs 62 | |
| Your basket | Rs 22,281 | — | — | |
Questions
What is in the basket?
A month of staples for a household: 40 kg wheat flour, 5 kg basmati rice, a kilo each of masoor and gram pulse, two 2.5-kg tins of vegetable ghee, 4 kg sugar, 30 litres of fresh milk, 2 dozen eggs, 4 kg chicken, 5 kg potatoes, 4 kg onions, 3 kg tomatoes, two packs of tea and a pack of salt. It is illustrative, not an official basket — change the quantities to price your own.
Where do the prices come from?
The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics' weekly Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), which reports the average retail price of each item in 17 cities every week. Every item in the basket is one PBS prices in all 17 cities, so cities compare like for like.
How is this different from CPI inflation?
CPI weights hundreds of goods and services by how households spend. This basket only counts staple foods at fixed quantities, so it shows what a grocery bill costs in rupees, and moves faster than headline inflation when food prices swing.
Can I get the series through the API?
Yes. prices.grocery_basket.<city> (and .national) is a weekly derived series from July 2023, labelled source PakDataHub with the formula on every record; the item prices are the commodities.* SPI series with a city dimension.
Data: Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (SPI), basket priced by PakDataHub. Also see the cost-of-living index by city and today's wholesale mandi rates.