Inflation has already edged down 1.0 per cent following fiscal interventions and a respite from price rises is awaited, Finance Adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed said Wednesday and urged all to have patience to get the assured consumer relief.
"We could keep inflation rate at steady level to some extent. Taming inflation will take time. Some sort of relief will come," he told reporters.
The adviser was briefing newsmen after a meeting of the Advisory Council Committee on Government Purchase at Bangladesh secretariat in the capital.
He mentioned some measures taken by the current interim government to bring down commodity prices. "We have lessened duty on onion and potato. Today we lowered import duty on sugar."
Mr Ahmed, also adviser for the ministry of commerce, said there would be no scarcity of essential commodities on the market.
"Today approval has been given to buy lentils, liquefied natural gas, and fertiliser. You will get relief," he assured.
Replying to a query as to how much time needed to tame the wayward inflation, the adviser urged all not to get impatient. "This is a very complex issue. Don't assume that inflation rose all of a sudden. Many factors are behind this."
He enumerates the factors: "There is market factor, market-monitoring factor, production, and marketing factor. New people have replaced the old ones, in some cases, with such nature remaining almost the same," Mr Ahmed said.
Replying to another question, the adviser said extortion got reduced but there are also matters relating to the law-and-order situation.
According to official data released by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the point-to-point inflation declined to 9.92 per cent in September from 10.49 per cent in August last.
Commodity prices have shot up in the recent weeks, especially after floods in different parts of the country destroyed their production, mounting the misery of poor and middle-income group of people.
The prices of kitchen items have gone beyond the purchasing capacity of common people due to production fall and supply shortage amid floods. Egg prices also shot up significantly with each dozen selling at around Tk 180 in the market.
Meantime, the purchase-committee meeting approved a proposal to import one-cargo LNG from M/S Gunvor Singapore Pte Ltd, Singapore, at a cost of Tk 6.57 billion. Each unit of the liquefied natural gas will cost $13.93.
The meeting also approved for the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) to buy 30,000 tonnes of TSP fertiliser from OCP, SA, Morocco, at a cost of Tk 1.49 billion with each tonne of fertiliser costing $415.
Under another approval, Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) will import 30,000 tonnes of bulk granular urea fertiliser from SABIC Agri Nutrients Company, Saudi Arabia, for Tk 1.28 billion where each tonne will cost $356.17.
Also, BCIC is given the go-ahead to buy 30,000 tonnes of bagged granular urea fertiliser from KAFCO, Bangladesh at a cost of Tk 1.23 billion with each tonne of fertiliser costing $343.37.
Moreover, the committee gave approval for the buy of 10,000 tonnes of lentils for the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh from a Chattogram-based supplier at a total cost of Tk 963 million, each kilogram costing Tk 96.39.
syful-islam@outlook.com