Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) –Bangladesh’s Consumers Price Index (CPI) inflation rose to 10.01 per cent in August, 2008 on annual average basis from 10 per cent of the previous month, officials said.
The rate of inflation moved slightly in August over that of July mainly due to the increase in prices of food items, they added.
The food price inflation rose to 12.56 per cent in August from 12.50 per cent in July 2008 on an average while that of non-food items came down to 6.01 per cent from 6.13 per cent, according to the state-run Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) data.
On the other hand, the inflation rate slightly eased to 10.11 per cent on a point-to-point basis in August from 11.82 per cent in July last following base effect.
“The CPI inflation rate came down slightly due to base effect and not seasonal impact,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country’s central bank told BBN in the capital, Dhaka.
In August 2007, the CPI inflation hit 10.12 per cent on point-to-point basis.
The inflationary expectation has increased due to the favorable monetary policy followed by the central bank aiming to achieve the maximum economic growth through credit expansion to the real sectors, according to the official.
“The inflationary expectation has pushed the inflation rate along with slowly declining trend in prices of essentials in the local market,” he said, adding that the prices adjustment would take more time because of ‘lag effect’.
The food price inflation dropped to 12.36 per cent in August from 13.92 per cent of July this year on point to point basis while that of non-food items increased to 6.55 per cent from 5.93 cent, the BBS data showed.
BBN/SI/SS/AD-16October08-9:51 AM (BST)
