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Published : 07 Jun 2026, 05:26 PM
The cost of living has tightened its grip on households as fuel-driven price pressures rippled through both the food and non-food sectors in May, pushing Bangladesh's inflation rate to a 16-month high.
The important economic indicator has ticked up for the second consecutive month. In April, the overall inflation rate was 9.04 percent.
It has now surged to 9.42 percent in May
The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) says that this jump is the result of rising prices in both the food and non-food sectors.
The previous high was in January 2025, when the overall inflation rate was 9.94 percent. Since then the rate has fluctuated, but its highest point was 9.35 percent, which was in March last year.
The 9.42 percent inflation rate means that a product or service that could be purchased for an average of Tk 100 in May last year, now costs an average of Tk 109.42 in May this year.
The inflation rate, which had been rising for several months and reached nine percent in February, then came down to the 8 percent range in March, within a month.
Later, in April, the inflation rate rose to 9.04 percent on a point-to-point basis.
With May’s figures, the government's statistical agency is reporting that inflation has been on the rise for two consecutive months.
Some government ministers had previously expressed concerns that the prices of all goods, including food, would increase in the wake of the war in West Asia and the energy crisis triggered by it.
The updated inflation data shows that prices increased in both food and non-food sectors in May by a significant margin.
Inflation in food products stood at 9.06 percent in May, compared with 8.39 percent in April.
On the other hand, inflation in the non-food sector increased from 9.57 percent in April to 9.71 percent in May.
After four consecutive months of climbing food prices, the overall inflation rate rose to 9.13 percent on a point-to-point basis in February.
This inflation rate was the highest since April last year. At that time, the rate was 9.17 percent. In May last year, it fell to 9.05 percent. Then, it gradually fell to 8.17 percent in October, the lowest level in 39 months.
Since then, the inflation rate has been climbing once again. It was 8.29 percent in November, 8.49 percent in December, and 8.58 percent in January.
