The overall point-to-point inflation in all indexes rose significantly in November than that of October due mainly to nonstop blockade and frequent hartals enforced by opposition parties and the ongoing political unrest in the country, officials of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday.
They said that point-to-point inflation, food inflation and non-food inflation all at national, rural and urban levels increased in the month as supply of essential goods became severely disrupted because of hartals and blockades.
According to BBS inflation data released on Thursday, general inflation soared by 0.12 percentage points to 7.15 per cent in November from 7.03 per cent a month ago.
Food inflation increased significantly to 8.55 per cent in the month from 8.38 per cent in October while non-food inflation rose slightly to 5.08 per cent in November from 5.02 per cent in the previous month.
‘Supply chain of essential products hampered in the country particularly in urban areas because of ongoing political situation, particularly frequent and non-stop blockades that caused a rising trend in inflation,’ BBS director general Golam Mostafa Kamal told reporters while releasing consumer price index for November.
Transportation of essential commodities was disrupted during strikes that caused shortfall of products supply in the market and the impact fell on prices, he said.
He said that the rate of inflation was not as high as the various research organisations apprehended that inflation would increase in ongoing months because of political instability.
According to the BBS data, food inflation, on monthly basis, however, stood at 0.47 per cent in the month because of price hike of food items such as rice, pulse, atta, fish, meat, vegetables, milk and tobacco products.
In October, monthly food inflation was 1.15 per cent.
On monthly basis, non-food inflation also witnessed a 0.26 per cent rise in November which was 0.56 per cent in previous month, because of price hike of some items like house rent, clothes, furniture, household items, cost of medical services, transportation, education materials and other products and services.
In the rural areas, the general point-to-point inflation rate stood at 6.92 per cent in November up from 6.78 per cent in October while in the urban areas it also slightly increased to 7.58 per cent from 7.52 per cent.
Food inflation and non-food inflation increased in the rural areas to 8.06 per cent and 4.88 per cent in November from 7.86 per cent and 4.84 per cent respectively a month before.
In urban areas, food inflation increased to 9.67 per cent in the month from 9.64 per cent in October while non-food inflation rose to 5.35 per cent from 5.28 per cent, according to the data.
Average general inflation in the last 12 months (December-2012 to November-2013) stood at 7.51 per cent which was 6.25 per cent a year ago (December-2011 to November-2012), the BBS data showed.
-With New Age input
