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The country’s headline inflation rose slightly to 8.55 per cent in July, up by 0.07 percentage points from 8.48 per cent in June, according to the latest report from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
The BBS report titled "Consumer Price Index (CPI), Inflation Rate and Wage Rate Index (WRI) in Bangladesh," released on Thursday, attributes the uptick primarily to a notable increase in food inflation.
Food inflation climbed to 7.56 per cent in July from 7.39 per cent in the previous month — a 0.17 percentage point rise that largely drove the overall inflation increase, the report noted.
In contrast, non-food inflation remained almost unchanged, inching up by just 1 basis point to 9.38 per cent in July from 9.37 per cent in June.
The report shows that inflation had been on a downward trend since peaking at 9.35 per cent in May, with a gradual decline over the following two months.
However, the upward reversal in July due to an abnormal rate of increase in food prices broke the three-month streak of easing consumer prices.
Earlier, the General Economics Division (GED) of the planning commission warned about the price hike of food items, particularly rice and fish.
In a report released last month, the GED highlighted that the increase in the prices of rice and fish contributed over 83 per cent of food inflation.
Meanwhile, wage growth increased slightly to 8.19 per cent in July but has remained consistently below the inflation rate for the past 42 months, worsening the cost-of-living situation for many.
The Bangladesh Bank, in its latest monetary policy statement, has set a target to bring inflation down to 6.5 per cent in the current fiscal year.
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