The country’s general or point-to-point inflation increased to 7.93 per cent in April from 7.74 per cent in March mainly because of disruption in supply
chain amid political unrest that pushed up food prices.
Food inflation increased to 8.68 per cent in April from 7.50 per cent in March, while the non-food inflation slightly down to 7.91 per cent in April from 8.04 per cent in March, showed Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics data released on Tuesday.
Overall inflation, basically food inflation in April, increased due to hike of prices of rice, fish, fruits, milk and other food items, said BBS director general Golam Mostafa Kamal at a news conference in the capital.
He also mentioned that the monthly inflation of non-food items increased due mainly to hike in prices of clothing, house rent, household items, transport cost, educational materials, services and other goods.
The inflation of the 12 months in average stood at 7.85 per cent during May 2012 to April 2013, which was 10.86 per cent during the same period between 2011 and 2012.
The new base year 2005-06 also indicated that the general inflation stood up at 8.37 per cent in April 2012 from 7.71 per cent in March 2013.
Point-to-point inflation in rural areas soared to 7.69 per cent in April from 7.46 per cent in March, while the urban inflation also increased to 8.53 per cent in April from 8.46 per cent in March.
Food and non-food inflation in rural areas stood at 8.24 per cent and 6.57 per cent in April and 7.92 per cent and 6.51 per cent in March respectively.
On the other hand, the food and non-food inflation in urban areas stood at 9.31 per cent and 7.45 per cent in April and 9.15 per cent and 7.53 per cent in March respectively.
BBS officials said the government had sold 10,219 tonnes of rice at Tk 24 per kg and 27,296 tonnes of wheat at Tk 19 per kg which was not included in the basket of consumer price index to calculate the inflation in April.
Kamal said the BBS was now two base years to calculate the inflation as demanded by some experts. But the BBS is planning to use the latest base year 2005-06 only to calculate the inflation from August.
As the new 2005-2006 base year inflation in rural areas is calculated on the basis of 318 items including 133 food and 185 non-food items and in urban areas it is calculated on the basis of 422 items including 151 food and 271 non-food items.
Overall inflation in April might have increased due mainly to disruptions in the supply chain of commodities for the ongoing political unrest, mainly hartals, said Salehuddin Ahmed, former Bangladesh Bank governor, while talking to New Age.
Hartals have highly disrupted the country’s transport system to carry goods which resulted in increase of the prices in last month, he said, adding, ‘Inflationary pressure on the economy in coming months could worsen for the political uncertainty and upcoming elections.’
Some businessman may hold or control the supply of goods for the unrest which may also increase the inflation, Ahmed said.
-With New Age input
