Food inflation remains double-digit level to 10.76 pc in November

Staff Reporter :
Food inflation in the country stayed above ten percent for the third consecutive month in November, causing immense hardship to the common people across the country.

According to the data released yesterday by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), food inflation stood at 10.76 percent last month which was 12.56 percent in October and 12.37 percent in September.

The non-food inflation was 8.16 percent in November declined by 14 basis points contributes to reduce the overall inflation by a margin.

The Inflation in the country fell to 9.49 percent in November led by a decline in food and non-food prices, the BBS data showed.

Earlier in October, The country inflation rate rose to 9.93 percent in October from 9.63 percent in September.

In October, food inflation went up by 12.56 percent from 12.37 percent a month earlier, while non-food inflation increased to 8.30 percent from 7.82 percent in September.

Since the March of the current year, inflation has consistently remained above 9 percent, significantly affecting the cost of living, particularly for the low-income groups.

Earlier in September this year, The general point-to-point inflation rate eased slightly in September as it reached 9.63 percent down from 9.92 percent in August, 2023 mainly due to the slight downtrend in both food and non-food inflation.

The annual average inflation from December 2022 to November 2023 notched 9.42 percent.

Economists attributed the persistently high inflation to internal factors, describing it as largely man-made.

These factors include the availability of cheap credit, market manipulation by vested interest groups, weak monitoring mechanisms, deteriorating macroeconomic fundamentals, and issues within the banking sector and money market.

Economists called for a rapid adjustment of the exchange rate, and for the government to address weaknesses in the market system and ensure that unscrupulous traders cannot destabilize the market.

Besides, the rural areas inflation outpaced urban areas, the point to point inflation in the urban areas reduced slightly in November from 9.16 percent to 9.72 percent in October.

Hence, in the rural areas overall inflation was 9.62 percent in November.

Meanwhile, the wage rate index in November witnessed an uptrend with 7.72 percent which was 7.69 percent in October.