Staff Reporter :
The country’s inflation rate dropped to 7.48 percent in July, which was 7.56 percent- a nine year high- amid a volatile global market triggered by the Russia-Ukraine war.
The inflation rate is coming down due to multiple initiatives taken by the government and also because of reduction of prices of daily commodities in the international markets.
However, non-food prices, however, shot up 6.39 per cent in July from 6.33 per cent in the previous month.
“Prices of rice, oil and wheat have reduced the inflation. Shipments of wheat are also coming from Russia. Besides, the decline in inflation is the reflection of the fall in prices of commodities in the international market,” said Planning Minister MA Mannan at a briefing in the Planning Ministry
on Wednesday. Referring to the data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the Minister also said food inflation dropped to 8.19 per cent in the first month of the current fiscal year from 8.37 per cent in June.
According to MA Mannan, the 7.48 percent inflation means people had to spend more than Tk107 to buy the same product or service in July this year which was Tk100 in the corresponding month last year.
Inflation may decline further this month, the Planning Minister hoped.
Earlier, in June, the inflation rate reached 7.56 percent – a nine year high – amid a volatile international market triggered by the Russia-Ukraine war. Prices of both food and non-food items ticked up in June. Food prices kept rising to 8.37 percent in June as the rate in the previous two months was at 8.30 percent and 6.23 percent.
According to a finance ministry report, Bangladesh may have to wait one and a half years more for the rising inflation to melt away as global prices for energy, grains and metals have soared substantially since the Russia-Ukraine war and taka continued to lose value against the dollar.
“Considering these developments, coupled with Bangladesh Bank’s current monetary policy stance, domestic inflation is expected to peak in the short term (3rd quarter of 2022) and abate later towards the end of 2023 with the projected easing of global commodity prices,” said the report titled “Inflation outlook for Bangladesh” prepared in June this year, assuming that inflation expectations remain well-anchored.
According to another internal report of the ministry, Bangladesh set inflation target at 5.6 percent for FY23, but now, it is not possible to gauge at what level the inflation rate will reach in this current fiscal year because global commodity prices, including fuel and food, still remain above the pre-war levels alongside devaluation of taka.
