Inflation drops in August despite hot kitchen market [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Inflation drops in August despite hot kitchen market

Local September 03, 2015

The point-to-point inflation dropped by 0.19 percentage points to 6.17 per cent in August from that of 6.36 per cent in July, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics of the planning ministry.
Consumers, however, suffered excessive price hike of some essential items including onion, green chilli and most of the vegetables at the country’s kitchen market.
According to the BBS data, both food and non-food inflation decreased in August because of price fall of some essential products including vegetable oil and sugar on the international market and price fall of rice on the domestic market.
In August, the prices of onion, green chilli, most of the vegetables, egg and beef soared in the country’s kitchen market, causing untold sufferings to consumers.
According to the data, the non-food inflation significantly decreased by 45 percentage points to 6.35 per cent in August from 6.80 per cent a month ago while the food inflation slightly fell to 6.06 per cent in the month from 6.07 per cent in July.
The planning ministry released the data at a briefing at the ministry in the capital.
In reply to a question how the inflation dropped in August amid excessive price hike of some products, planning minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said the impact of price hike of onion, green chilli and vegetables was insignificant on the calculation of inflation rate as the weights of the items are very little than that of other food items particularly rice, edible oil and sugar.
‘The weight of rice is 80 per cent of the total food products,’ he said at the briefing.
The point-to-point inflation dropped in the month on lower prices of edible oil and sugar on the international market and a decreased price of rice, the most consumed food item in the country, on the local market, he said.
He also said that recent price hike of gas and electricity would not put any impact on the inflation in the next month and suggested that people should be accustomed with the increased prices of the products.
‘Bangladesh sells the two items at much lower prices than other countries,’ he claimed.
Officials of the BBS said the overall inflation went down in August because of fall of prices of the coarse rice.
The price of coarse rice dropped to Tk 37 a kilogram from Tk 38 a kg In July, they said.
According to the BBS report, the monthly food inflation increased by 1.81 per cent in August compared with that of July because of price hike of pulse, egg, fish, meat, vegetable, spices and tobacco products.
On the other hand, the monthly non-food inflation increased by 0.07 per cent in August compared with that of July because of increase in the cost for house rent, furniture and household items, treatment, transport and education materials.
Kamal said the government would try to keep the rate of inflation below 6.5 per cent targeted by it for the entire year.
According to the BBS data, overall, food and non-food inflation also dropped in both rural and urban areas in August.
On implementation of the annual development programme in August, Kamal hinted that the progress might be disappointing and below expectation.
The government could not implement the ADP in August at expected level because of land-related problems, he said.
The ADP implementation remained slow in August because of the rainy season, he said.
He, however, said that the final picture of the ADP spending would come within few days.
State minister for finance and planning MA Mannan, Statistics and Information Division secretary Kaniz Fatema, Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division secretary Shahid Ullah and planning commission members Shamsul Alam, Arastoo Khan and Humayun Khalid were present, among others, at the briefing.