Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – Bangladesh’s Consumers Price Index (CPI) inflation crossed the double digit level to 10.04 per cent on the point-to-point basis in June from 7.44 per cent of the previous month.
The rate of inflation went up by 2.60 percentage points in June last over that of the May, 2008, mainly due to the increase in prices of food items, officials said.
In July 2007, the CPI inflation hit 10.10 per cent on the point-to-point basis for the first time.
The food price inflation rose to 14.10 per cent in June from 9.62 per cent in May 2008 while that of non-food items came down to 3.54 per cent from 3.89 per cent, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) data.
On the other hand, the inflation rate hit 9.94 per cent in June, 2008 from 9.87 per cent of the previous month on the annual average basis, the BBS’s data showed.
‘The inflationary pressures on the economy have slightly gone up during the period, mainly due to the increase in prices of essentials including food items in the local market,’ a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country’s central bank, told BBN in the capital, Dhaka on Tuesday.
“The pass-through of unusual fuel price rise in the international market was not evident in the country’s CPI inflation since the administered fuel prices were adjusted at the end of the quarter under review,’ the central bank said in its Bangladesh Bank Quarterly for April-June 2008.
The government raised the administered price of compressed natural gas (CNG) in June 2008 and prices of fuel oil and urea fertilizer in July last.
“While the impacts are yet to be seen, these adjustments may somewhat push up the point-to-point inflation in the coming months,” the Quarterly noted.
However, with an expected positive supply response of the real sector to policy measures of the government and the BB, the impact of the rise may remain temporary, it added.
BBN/SI/SI/AD-20August08-12:28 AM
