Food inflation soars to 16-month high

Bangladesh’s food inflation rate increased to a 16-month high at 6.22 percent in February, jumping from 5.6 percent in January, according to the latest Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics data.

In November 2020, food inflation dropped to 5.73 percent from a whopping 7.34 percent the previous month.

Food inflation has been on the rise since August last year when it was 5.16 percent.

Prices of most commodities have been creeping up to consumers amid the coronavirus pandemic and recently exacerbated by the supply chain disruption induced by Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Meanwhile, the general inflation rate rose to 6.17 percent in February. It went down to 5.86 percent in January from December’s 6.05 percent.

However, continuing its downward trend, non-food inflation rate dropped to 6.1 percent in February from 6.26 percent in January.

This indicates that food inflation rose by 62 basis points, and general inflation by 31 basis points, while non-food dropped 16 basis points.