Food price hike pushes inflation to 5-year-high

Inflation rose to 6.44% — a five-year high — in October, showed data by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) on Wednesday.

The key driver of this rise is a surge in food inflation, which made a sharp rise by climbing 84 basis points to 7.34% following an increase in the price of rice.

Earlier in September this year, food inflation was 6.50% and in October last year, it was 5.49%.

The average Consumer Price Index (CPI) climbed 47 basis points from September's 5.97%. October's CPI is 97 basis points higher than it was in the same month last year.

This was the third consecutive monthly increase in inflation as recent floods and rains damaged crops and pushed up the price of rice and vegetables.

Non-food inflation declined 12 points to 5% last month.

In rural areas, inflation jumped by 71 points to 6.67% from 5.96% a month ago. Food inflation surged 1.12 percentage points to 7.73% from 6.61% in September this year.

Urban inflation moved up five basis points to 6.03%. Food inflation in urban areas rose 22 basis points to 6.48%, but non-food inflation dropped 14 basis points to 5.51%.

General inflation has been on an upward trend since July.