Persistent inflation in Bangladesh even as it falls in South Asia
Business Desk :
Bangladesh is still suffering from a high consumer price index (CPI), despite significant fall in inflation in South Asian nations and worldwide overall.
Global price fall of different commodities has hardly had an impact on the inflation in Bangladesh, they noted, as latest statistics show the CPI hurtling down from astronomical highs in few neighbours, with Sri Lanka in particular.
Economists and analysts explained that failure in demand-supply management from fiscal and monetary perspectives, smooth product-supply mechanism, and dishonesty on part of some businessmen, extortion on roads and markets were behind the higher CPI trend in Bangladesh.
An analysis found that inflation in Sri Lanka and Pakistan dropped drastically while India, the Maldives, Nepal and Bhutan also saw similar drops.
But on the contrary, month-on-month inflation in Bangladesh maintained a higher trend this year since January.
Point-to-point inflation in Bangladesh was recorded at 9.74% in June on a track of market volatility over six months.
In January last, the country’s inflation rate was 8.57%, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) data showed.
The rate of inflation in the crisis-induced impoverished Sri Lanka has hurtled down from 53.2% in January to stand at 10.8% last month, statistics available with the Sri Lankan central bank showed.
Similarly, the rate in Pakistan also dropped to 24.4% in June from a peak of 38% in May this year, the Pakistan central bank’s statistics showed.
The Sri Lankan government said the key inflation rate eased for the ninth consecutive month to 10.8% in June as food inflation declined for the first time since 2019 to 1.4% against 4.1% in June.
Inflation also decelerated for non-food items to 10.5% against 16.2% in June.
India’s rate stood lowest at 4.42% in July in a decrease from 6.16% in January, the official data showed, as reports say prices are much cheaper over there in comparison to prices in Bangladesh.
Similarly, the inflation rate in the Himalayan nation of Nepal has also been maintaining a lower trend as it calmed down to only 6.83% in June in a descent from the recent peak of 7.88% in February.
Bhutan has been able to keep the CPI under tight control as its inflation reached rock bottom at 3.83% in June from 4.33% in January. Maldives with its inflation rate having fallen to 2.47% in June from 3.99% in January, the official data showed.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), global food prices have continued on a declining trajectory, with the index falling 1.4% from 124% in May to 122.3.
From its record peak in March 2022, the index is now 23.4% lower, the FAO has said.
