Pakistan's annual short-term inflation spiked by 43.16 percent in the week ending on December 14, media reports said.

The surge was fuelled by pulses, rice and vegetables, as per data released by the  Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on Friday.

The weekly inflation remained above 41pc for the fifth week in a row as gas prices, electricity tariffs stood higher than a year ago. This record-setting surge in prices has significantly eroded consumer purchasing power, underscoring the financial strain on households, reported Dawn News.

On an annual basis, the price of gas charges for Q1 increased (1108.59pc), cigarettes (93.22pc), chillies powder (81.74pc), wheat flour (81.40pc), garlic (71.17pc), rice basmati broken (64.30pc), rice IRRI-6/9 (60.64pc), gents sponge chappal (58.05pc), gents sandal (53.37pc), sugar (50.52pc), gur (50.42pc), and pulse mash (44.80pc).

In contrast, the prices of onions dropped 25.11pc year-on-year, followed by mustard oil (4.40pc), vegetable ghee 1kg (2.12pc), bananas (1.05pc) and vegetable ghee 2.5kg (0.95pc), the newspaper reported.

The short-term, or weekly, inflation is measured by a basket of goods and services called the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), which stood at 311.58 compared to 311.78 in the preceding week.