Food inflation rises to 11.73pc in Oct

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FE Report
The rate of inflation concerning food items reached 11.73 per cent on a point-to-point basis in October last from 11.10 per cent in September 2007. This price-rise has been attributed to both domestic and international factors.
The rate of food inflation went up by 0.63 percentage point in October last over that of the previous month, according to the data of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), released Tuesday.
Non-food inflation also rose to 7.42 per cent in October last from 7.35 per cent of the previous month, the data showed.
The country's overall consumers' price index (CPI) inflation, however, crossed double digit and stood at 10.06 per cent on a point-to-point basis in October last from 9.60 per cent in September 2007 because of raising the prices of both food and non-food items.
Besides, the inflation rate moved up to 8.25 per cent in October last from 8.01 per cent of the previous month on an annual average basis, according to the BBS statistics.
"The existing inflationary pressures on the economy are likely to continue in the whole of the second quarter of the current fiscal," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE Tuesday.
He also said the inflationary pressures may go up slightly in the third quarter due to seasonal effects.
The BB official, however, said the cyclone will not have any impact on the price level shortly because the government is conscious about such a situation and a large quantity of food grains will soon be imported to meet the food deficit.
The pressure of food prices in the urban areas was higher than in the rural areas during the period. Food inflation in the urban areas stood at 12.15 per cent last October against 12.09 per cent a month ago on a point-to-point basis.
In the rural areas, the rate of inflation relating to food items also rose to 11.54 per cent last October from 10.68 per cent in September 2007.
During the period, the rate of general inflation in the urban areas stood at 9.64 per cent on a point-to-point basis against 9.57 per cent while the inflation rose to 10.22 per cent from 9.60 per cent in the rural areas.
"There is a scope to reduce the prices of food items in the urban areas through improving the supply chain," another BB official said.