Inflation came down slightly to 6.04 percent in October riding on the decline in food prices, official figures showed.
Last month, general inflation decreased 8 basis points from September's 6.12 percent, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), which released the data yesterday.
One of the major contributors was a drop in food inflation, which fell 25 basis points to 7.62 percent last month after reaching a 38-month high of 7.87 percent in September.
Vegetables, prices of eggplant, papaya and okra decreased and potato prices remained unchanged at Tk 20 a kg. Potato production grew to 10.21 million tonnes in the last fiscal year from the previous year’s 9.45 million tonnes.
Despite drops in other vegetables, prices of local onion rose Tk 27 a kg in a month reaching Tk 79.24 in October, while prices of dry chillies went up to Tk 228.59 a kg.
In August 2014, food inflation was 7.67 percent and gradually decreased to below 4 percent. But from January last year, it started to creep up to more than 6 percent, crossing the 7 percent mark in May this year. It remained above 7 percent in the following five months except June.
1 Bangladeshi Taka = 0.012 US Dollar
Source: thedailystar.net / bdnews24.com