The country's Consumers Price Index (CPI) inflation eased marginally in January on an annual average basis because of declining prices of food and non-food items both in rural and urban areas.
The CPI inflation came down to 8.46 per cent in January on an annual average basis from 8.90 per cent of the previous month, officials said.
On the other hand, the inflation rate slightly moved up to 6.06 per cent on a point-to-point basis in January from 6.03 per cent of the previous month because of higher prices of non-food items.
The non-food inflation rose to 4.88 per cent in January last from 4.76 per cent of the previous month on a point-to-point calculation method while that of food items remained unchanged at 6.83 per cent, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) data.
The food price inflation dropped to 10.41 per cent in the month of January from 11.02 cent in December last on an average basis while that of non-food items stood at 5.33 per cent from 5.52 per cent during the same period, the BBS data showed.
The central bank is of the opinion that the declining trend of inflation may continue in the next couple of months and it might fall to around 8.0 per cent by the end of this fiscal.
"We expect that the overall inflationary pressure on economy may come down to around 8.0 per cent on an average basis by the end of the current fiscal (2008-2009)," Chief Economist of Bangladesh Bank (BB) Mustafa K Mujeri told the FE.
He also said the inflation may ease further because of falling trend in prices of commodities in the global market.
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Inflation downtrend continues
Siddique Islam | Published: March 08, 2009 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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