Inflation increases in February after being stable for eight months

Inflation has gone up in Bangladesh after being stable for eight months.

It rose to 6.14 percent in February, up from 6.04 percent in January.

Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal says that the rise was due to an increase in non-food price inflation.

“Non-food inflation usually goes up at the beginning of a year as there are factors like increased house-rent and annual school-fees,” he told a media briefing on Tuesday. 

Figures by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics show that inflation was rather stable in the last eight months.

Overall inflation was at 7.35 percent in July last year, the first month of the ongoing 2014-15 fiscal. It came down to 6.04 percent in January, but increased last month.

February’s food inflation edged up to 6.11 percent from 6.07 in January, while non-food inflation rose to 6.2 percent from 6.01.

The average inflation, however, came down at 6.76 percent, which was at 7.57 percent during February last year, according to the planning ministry.

At Tuesday’s media conference,  the ministry said that though the inflation was in a ‘manageable’ state due to low food prices, but the disruption of transporting commodities during the political turmoil has increased the risk of rising inflation.

The BNP-led coalition has been enforcing a transport blockade across Bangladesh since Jan 5. It has been calling shutdowns every day since February, except weekends.

Incidents of arson and firebombing on vehicles are being reported every day since January.

Amid major disruption of commodities’ movement on highways paramilitary forces like the BGB along with police have been deployed to ensure safe passage.