Staff Reporter :
Finance and Commerce Adviser Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed reiterated on Monday that the government’s firm stance on curbing extortion is yielding positive results in the market, which is expected to help contain inflation.
He hoped that the prices of the essentials will come down gradually
Dr. Salehuddin stated this while addressing reporters at the Secretariat following a meeting with UNDP Resident Representative Stefan Liller.
Dr. Salehuddin also noted that the general point-to-point inflation rate remained at 10.49 percent in August, indicating a gradual downtrend.
He remarked, “Inflation is already on the decline,” referencing the latest report by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
According to the BBS report, overall inflation dropped by 1.17 percentage points in August compared to July, when it stood at 11.66 percent. This decline reflects the government’s efforts to stabilise the economy amid rising costs.
However, the report also highlighted that food inflation has remained above 10 percent for five consecutive months, severely impacting consumers, many of whom allocate a significant portion of their incomes to feed their families.
The persistent food inflation continues to strain household budgets, despite the government’s ongoing measures to mitigate economic pressures.
Addressing the govements interventions curbing inflation Finance and Commerce Adviser said “It’s not only work through boosting the supply side as some other issues are also related. We didn’t stop the supply side as we’re bringing more commodities like soybean oil and rice bran oil so that there is a deficit in the supply side.”
The adviser went on saying, “Retail prices also matter and my stance is that no added pressure should be put on the consumers,” he said, adding that the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection (DNCRP) has been enforcing strict market monitoring in this regard.
Dr Salehuddin also suggested looking into the government’s strict measures for market monitoring as the price of essentials would not come down all of a sudden.
He alleged that there were many reasons for the high inflation trend during the past government regime as more money was printed unwisely and it also had an impact on the market. “It will take some time to put everything in the right track.”
Meanwhile, the general Inflation in the country remains over 9 per cent for the 18th consecutive month. On the other hand monthly wage growth below inflation for the 31st month straight.
The wages of unskilled workers grew 7.96 percent in August which significanly below the overall inflation rate reflecting the worsening of the purchasing capacity of people.
In the just concluded financial year of 2023-24,the wage growth of low and unskilled workers was 7.74 percent while the Consumer Price Index (CPI) commonly known as overall inflation rose 9.73 percent , highlighting a gap of 1.99 percentage point.
The widening gap has forced many low-income and unskilled workers to cut consumption in the face of falling real incomes as the declining wage growth and climbing inflation pushed them to the wall.