Non-food inflation soars in Jan on house rent, edu expense hike

Point-to-point non-food inflation increased by 1.69 percentage points to 8.74 per cent in January from 7.05 per cent in previous month due mainly to hike in house rent and additional expenditure on education purpose in the beginning of the year, according to the data of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
The rate of overall point-to-point inflation in January, however, slightly declined to 6.07 per cent from 6.10 per cent in December last year on significant reduction of food inflation, the data released on Tuesday showed.
In January, point-to-point food inflation went down by 1.15 percentage points to 4.33 per cent from 5.48 per cent a month ago because of lower prices of food items, particularly vegetables in domestic market, it showed.
‘House owners reviewed house rent upward in January and parents spent more for children’s academic purpose including buying school bags, dress and other materials that pushed the non-food inflation up in the month,’ planning minister AHM Mustafa Kamal told reporters while releasing the monthly inflation data at the post-ECNEC briefing at the ministry.
He said that adequate supply of vegetables and other food items helped in controlling the food inflation, resulting downward trend in the rate of overall inflation.
Point-to-point inflation would reduce further if the house rent would not be increased, he said.
According to the BBS data, point-to-point inflation in urban areas increased to 7.53 per cent in January from 7.07 per cent in December based on higher non-food inflation though food inflation declined significantly in the areas.
In urban areas, non-food inflation rose to 9.25 per cent in the month from 6.98 per cent in December while food inflation dropped to 5.96 per cent in January from 7.14 per cent in the previous month.
In rural areas, overall point-to-point inflation and food-inflation declined to 5.29 per cent and 3.63 per cent respectively in the month from 5.58 per cent and 4.76 per cent respectively in December while non-food inflation increased to 8.37 per cent in January from 7.10 per cent in the previous month.
The average year-to-year rate of inflation from January 2015 to January 2016 stood at 6.20 per cent, which was 6.87 per cent from January 2014 to January 2015.
On monthly basis, non-food inflation was 2.86 per cent in January mainly because of increased cost for clothes, electricity, house rent, furniture and house hold items, treatment, transportation and education materials.
On the other hand, food inflation was negative to 0.06 per cent in the month due to reduction in prices of vegetables, fruits, vegetable oil and spices, the BBS data showed.
Statistics and Informatics Division secretary Kaniz Fatema, BBS director general Abdul Wazed, among others, were present at the briefing.

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