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Finance Minister Abul Hasan Mahmood Ali said there is a need for an additional six months to bring inflation under control.
He said it will begin to decline by the end of this year.
Mr Ali said these at the post-budget press conference organised by the Ministry of Finance held at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium in Dhaka city on Friday.
He noted that the budget size has been reduced so that there is no pressure on commodity prices.
The proposed budget for the fiscal year 2024-25 has set a target of bringing down inflation to 6.5 per cent.
However, the rate of inflation has remained above 9.0 per cent for the past 14 months.
The GDP (Gross domestic product) growth target for the next fiscal year has been set at 6.75 per cent, down from 7.5 per cent in the current fiscal year, which was later revised to 6.50 per cent.
The finance minister said that inflation in the country has increased mainly due to the war in Ukraine. Besides, after that war, the country’s reserves started to drop too.
“To my mind, this [Ukraine war] is the main reason behind the stubbornly higher inflation”, he stated.