Food inflation that the poor and the marginalised people are facing in the country is far more than twice the official figure since the national statistical agency relies on an old base year that does not reflect reality, as per presentation of a research study by Sanem on Thursday. It said the reality is that the official figures of inflation don’t reflect the real scenario in the wake of the growing price hikes. This is because the officially reported food inflation figures are grossly underestimating the actual food inflation raising question.
The report said in January, official food inflation in the urban and rural areas was 4.85 per cent and 5.94 per cent respectively as per BBS data but practically it was many times more. The monthly point-to-point food price indices and food inflation rates were calculated based on the retail price data of years back collected by the Department of Agricultural Marketing, the agriculture ministry, and the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).According to Sanem study, in January, food inflation was 11.36 per cent in the urban areas and 11.21 per cent in the rural areas but the government figures is far too small.
We must say the official data and the data that comes out in the study are about three times apart and the problem is that our policy makers are relying on false data base thus suppressing the owes of the poor and the disadvantaged. In fact, the government is using highly suppressed data while calculating the prices of the staple and taking the comfort that prices are within people’s purchasing power. This is how it is similarly claiming success that the nation is making in all fronts. The fact is that every government claim of success is mostly based on lies; the government is floating on lies while corruption and stealing of resources are allowing the rich and the powerful to exploit the poor.
What is more damaging is that the use of such faulty and suppressed data in calculating the social benefits to the poor and the disadvantaged is depriving them from what they could legitimately claim. We would ask the government to use standard figures in calculating their sufferings.
