Overall point-to-point inflation dropped to a 23-month low to 6.60 per cent in October because of comparatively moderate rise in food prices, according to the data of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. In November 2012, the point-to-point inflation rate was 6.55 per cent but the rate soared to 8.37 per cent in April 2013 before coming down slowly, showed the data released on Thursday.BBS officials said that the point-to-point inflation in October dropped, for third month in a row, by 0.24 percentage point from 6.84 per cent in the previous month as food prices rose moderately while prices of many essential items decreased in the international market.
The food inflation or the rate of rise in food prices decreased to 7.16 per cent in October from that of 7.63 per cent in September.
The non-food inflation, however, increased by 0.11 percentage point to 5.74 per cent in October from 5.63 per cent in the previous month mainly due to price hike of non-food items like clothes, house rents and household items ahead of Eid-ul-Azha in the first week of the month, they said.
‘Current inflation trend remains within the expectation of the government as it has been gradually getting down over the last few months. Hopefully, inflation will come down to around 6 per cent, below the government-set target to contain the rate within 6.50 per cent,’ planning minister AHM Mustafa Kamal told reporters while releasing the data at the ministry conference room.
Prices of 16 essential items including fuel and edible oil and sugar have recently dropped in the international market putting an impact on the inflation rate in the country as Bangladesh is mostly dependent on import of the products, he said.
In recent times, food prices have remained stable in the local market also, he added.
The BBS data showed that point-to-point inflation and food inflation in both rural and urban areas also came down in October compared with that of the previous month.
Non-food inflation, however, rose slightly in both urban and rural areas.
Average annual inflation between November 2013 and October 2014, however, stood at 7.18 per cent, declining from 7.47 per cent during the same period of previous one year.
According to the data, on a monthly basis, food prices increased by 0.71 per cent in October from that of September because of price hike of rice, pulse, vegetables, fruit, milk and milk products, tobacco products and other food items.
The prices of non-food items like house rent, clothes, furniture, household items, costs of medical services, transportation, education materials and other goods and services also rose by 0.67 per cent in the month from that of the prices in September.
Planning Division secretary Bhuiyan Shafiqul Islam, Statistics and Informatics Division secretary Suraiya Begum, BBS director general Golam Mostafa Kamal, among others, attended the briefing.
-With New Age input
