July point-to-point inflation 10.2pc

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FE Report
The rate of inflation on point to point basis in July last was 10.2 per cent, the highest in last one decade.
"The July inflation was 10.2 per cent," finance and planning adviser Mirza Azizul Islam told the FE, emerging from a meeting of the council committee on government purchases Monday afternoon.
He pointed out that the rate of inflation was on point-to-point basis for the month of July, not the annual average rate of inflation.
"We should count the annual average rate of inflation," he added.
The caretaker government has been pursuing a tight monetary policy to help rein in soaring inflation.
But some economists are opposed to the contractionary monetary policy and have suggested the central bank to devise some other mechanism, including appreciation of local currency against the greenback, to tame the inflationary trend.
The finance and planning adviser, however, brushed aside such suggestions saying that those were based on wrong calculation.
He expressed his doubt about the impact of such measures on the local commodity market when prices of different food items in the international market recorded almost 20 per cent increase in terms of dollar.
Beside, such policy, according to the United Nations economist, would threaten the existence of the country's US$ 12 export industry.
Only in 1987-88 fiscal, inflation reached 11.42 per cent when Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) used to calculate inflation on the basis of weighted average of selected products.
Sources pointed out that inflationary pressure had not been mounting only because of the food items. Non-food items have been also contributing to the rising inflation.
The BBS officials found that the prices of medicines and even blood needed for transfusion had gone up in the local market in July. The trend, according to them, is ominous for future months.
Sources said food inflation in July was hovering around 11 per cent and the non-food items around 10 per cent.
The rate of inflation on point-to-point basis in June stood at 9.20 per cent.
The food inflation was 9.82 per cent and the non-food 8.34 per cent during the same month.