Inflation hits 41-month low in Feb on global food price slump

The point-to-point inflation in the country hit a 41-month low to 5.62 per cent in February dropping by 0.45 percentage points from 6.07 per cent in January, according to data of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
The inflation decreased due mainly to ample supply of essential commodities on the kitchen market and reduction in prices of imported goods on the international market, planning minister AHM Mustafa Kamal told reporters at a press briefing after the weekly ECNEC meeting in Dhaka on Tuesday.
The previous lowest inflation rate was 4.96 per cent in September 2012.
Both food and non-food inflation also declined to 3.77 per cent and 8.46 per cent respectively in February from a month ago.
In January, the rate of food inflation was 4.33 per cent and non-food inflation was 8.74 per cent.
The rate of overall inflation in the country has been declining for the last few months and reached record low in February, the minister said.
Since September 2012, the rate of inflation has never reached below 5.62 per cent, he said.
‘The gradually declining trend in commodity prices on the global market put a positive impact on prices of consumer products on the domestic market,’ Kamal said.
He also attributed sufficient supply of winter vegetables and other products and its lower prices to the decreased rate of inflation in the month.
The planning minister hoped that the rate of inflation would remain at significantly low level by the end of the current financial year 2015-16 than the government target of containing it to 6.2 per cent.
According to the BBS report, the monthly food inflation declined by negative 0.26 percentage points in February compared with that of January because of price fall of rice, pulse, vegetables and spices on the domestic market.
On the other hand, the monthly non-food inflation increased by 0.05 percentage points in the month compared with that of January because of an increase in the cost for electricity, clothes, house rent, furniture and household items, treatment, transport and education materials, the report said.
BBS officials said the prices of the many imported products remained lower on the domestic market as their prices decreased on the international market.
According to the Food Price Index published on March 3 by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, the food price index was stable in February.
But the index points decreased by 14.5 per cent from a year ago, it said. The index is prepared tracking international market prices for five key commodity groups —major cereals, vegetable oil, dairy, meat and sugar.
According to the BBS data, point-to-point inflation, food and non-food inflation in the both rural and
urban areas also dropped in February from that of in January.
In February, point-to-point inflation in both urban and rural areas stood at 7.22 per cent and 4.76 per cent respectively from 7.53 per cent and 5.29 per cent respectively in the previous month.
The average annual inflation from March 2015 to February 2016 stood at 6.15 per cent
which was 6.76 per cent in the previous span of time from March 2014 to February 2015, the data showed.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net