Economic Reporter :
The general point-to-point inflation rate in January slightly declined to 6.07 percentage point, down from 6.10 percentage point in December 2015 due to the rising trend of the non-food inflation.
The food inflation, however, came down to 4.33 percent in January this year, which was 5.48 percent in December, 2015, according to the latest Consumer Price Index data of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
Revealing the data, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal following a meeting of ECNEC said on Tuesday that the non-food inflation rate increased to 8.74 percent in January 2016, up from 7.05 percent in December, 2015.
“More consumption of the non-food items like an increase of the house rents at the beginning of the year alongside some extra expenditure for the children’s academic purposes pushed the inflation slightly up in January,” Kamal said.
He said the food inflation rate during the period did not increase as the supply chain was good with the availability of vegetables and other items.
The Planning Minister also expressed his optimism to further reduce the overall inflation rate in the current fiscal year based on the successful macroeconomic management.
Kamal, commonly known as Lotus Kamal, said that he earlier expected that the inflation rate would come down more in this month.
Besides, the general inflation rate at the urban level increased to 7.53 percent in January while it was 5.29 percent at the rural level.
At the rural level, the food inflation also declined to 3.63 percent, down from 4.76 percent in the previous month, while the non-food inflation increased to 8.37 percent in January as against 7.10 percent in December.
In urban areas, the food inflation also declined to 5.96 percent in January, down from 7.14 percent in December. The non-food inflation rate, however, stood at 9.25 percent in January which was 6.98 percent in December last year.
The national wage index rate witnessed a 6.03 percent growth in January with 133.49 point against 6.46 percent growth with 132.58 point in December.
The average year- to-year rate of inflation from January 2015 to January 2016 stood at 6.20 percent, which was 6.87 percent from January 2014 to January 2015.
