Inflation jumps to 8.78pc in February

Staff Reporter :
The country’s inflation rose by 0.21 percentage points to 8.78 per cent in February from 8.57 per cent in January after witnessing a downtrend over the last five months, according to the latest data from Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
Both overall inflation and food inflation increased significantly while non-food inflation saw a slight rise.
Previously, inflation reached 11-year high to 9 per cent in August last year. Since then, inflation continued to fall.
On the other hand, State Minister for Planning Dr Shamsul Alam said the country’s inflation has not reached so high as to become uncomfortable.
Defending his statement, the state minister drew examples of Zimbabwe and Pakistan having 300% and 40% inflation respectively.
“We have inflation but not at hyper level and it is mainly production cost-based. Even India’s inflation is higher than ours,” said the state minister after the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) meeting on Sunday (12 March).
“Although inflation increased in February, reporting at 8.78%, a downward trend prevailed in the last few months,” he noted.
Shamsul Alam also claimed that the national wage rate has increased more in comparison to the rise in inflation.
“The national wage rate has risen by 26% in recent times, which helped prevent inflation from reaching an uncomfortable level,” he observed.
He also said that consumer inflation is calculated taking prices of over 400 products into consideration.
“The prices of many products are falling. But the rate goes up due to price hikes of a few products,” the state minister argued.
According to the BBS, food inflation also increased to 8.13 per cent in February from 7.76 per cent in January

while non-food inflation rose by 0.02 percentage points.
According to the latest BBS data, pressure of inflation is more in the rural areas than the urban areas. In February, overall inflation increased to 8.80 per cent in the rural areas and it stood at 8.75 per cent in urban areas.
Food inflation and non-food inflation rose to 8.19 per cent and 9.98 per cent in villages respectively while the figures stood at 7.98 per cent and 9.61 per cent in cities.
Several factors contribute to the rise of inflation, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) research director Khondaker Golam Moazzem said adding, global and domestic economic situations are responsible for the rise of inflation.
Other than this, it is necessary to monitor the market regularly to prevent market manipulation and hoarding in order to check the inflation from further rise, he added.
“We are in a circle of high inflation. So, a slight change in inflation does not indicate a drop in our living expenses,” Golam Moazzem said adding, it would not be easy to leave this circle of inflation because of overall import and product situation.