The country’s point-to-point inflation declined slightly in January from that of December 2012, according to data released by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday.
Consumer price index of the month shows that all three indicators of general, food and non-food inflation remained downward over the past few months amid tightened monetary policy taken by Bangladesh Bank.
Under the base year of 1995-96, the rate of general inflation in January stood at 7.38 per cent year-on-year from 7.69 per cent in December 2012 year-on-year.
The food inflation also slightly fell to 7.21 per cent and non food inflation to 7.79 per cent in January from 7.33 per cent and 8.43 per cent in December 2012 respectively.
When asked why the rate of inflation dropped in January despite the increase in fuel oil price, Golam Mostafa Kamal, the director general of the BBS, however, said on month-on-month basis inflation in January increased compared with the inflation in December.
Monthly-basis food inflation in January had increased to 1.05 per cent from 0.36 per cent in December 2012 due mainly to price hike of rice, wheat flower, pulse, fish, eggs and tobacco, said Kamal while releasing the data at a press conference on Wednesday.
On the other hand, monthly non-food inflation also increased to 1.08 per cent in January from 0.38 per cent in December due to price hike of clothes, house rent, fuel oil, household goods, transport, education materials and other service related goods.
Kamal also said the national rates of wages on point to point in December 2012 and January 2013 increased to 15.70 per cent and 15.65 per cent respectively which were higher than the inflation.
‘Non-food inflation remained higher due to rise of energy prices and house rents in recent months,’ he added.
Under the 2005-06 base year, the general inflation also fell to 6.62 per cent in January on point-to-point basis from 7.14 per cent in December 2012, while the food and non-food inflation was 5.28 per cent and 10.03 per cent in December 2012 respectively.
Under base year of 2005-06, the food inflation stood at 5.02 per cent from 5.28 per cent and the non-food inflation at 9.09 per cent from 10.03 per cent.
The BBS introduced 2005-06 as the new base year in July 2012 instead of 1995-96, by reviewing the product baskets and their weights for calculating inflation.
The government has fixed the target to contain the general inflation at below 7.5 per cent in the current fiscal year. As per the budgetary target the BB is currently applying the contractionary monetary policy.
In the monetary policy the BB has also tightened up the import of non-essential goods. Overall import of other commodity has also been sluggish.
Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies research director Zaid Bakth said the overall inflations on point-to-point had slightly declined. But the increase of month-on-month inflation is a negative sign, he said.
While talking to New Age about the latest figures of inflation by BBS, senior banker Khondokar Ibrahim Khaled said, the BB’s monetary policy was helping to contain the inflation.
Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh executive director Ahsan H Mansur said, ‘The decrease of food and non-food inflation is a good combination and positive sign for the economy.’
‘I think the tightened monetary policy had a good impact on reducing the inflation,’ Mansur said.
Courtesy of New Age
