Higher inflationary pressure heralded the current financial year (FY) 2015-16 as the rate of inflation, on point-to-point basis, rose to 6.36 per cent in July by official count.
Higher consumer-price index in the urban areas mainly pushed up the important macroeconomic indicator in the first month of the new fiscal, official data showed.
In the previous month, June, which marked the end of FY2014-15, the point-to-point inflation was 6.25 per cent, according to the statistics available with Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
The point-to-point inflation a year ago, in July FY2014, was recorded 7.04 per cent.
BBS officials said inflation had been on an upturn in July as the consumer-price index in the urban areas jumped 0.37 percentage points to 7.28 per cent.
Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal unveiled the inflation data at a press briefing in the city Tuesday after a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC).
"The prices of some non-food items had increased last month due to countrywide celebration of Eid-ul-Fitr which prompted the increase in the point-to-point inflation in July," he told journalists.
According to the BBS findings, the inflation on account of food, on point-to-point basis, was, however, lower this past July at 6.07 per cent compared to 6.32 per cent in the previous month (June) and from 7.94 per cent in July of FY2014 a year ago.
Non-food inflation climbed up to 6.80 per cent in the past month from 6.15 per cent in the previous month and from 5.71 per cent in July a year ago.
The BBS calculations showed that the overall inflation rate in the rural area in July of the current FY slightly dropped to 5.88 per cent from 5.90 per cent in June.
Food inflation on point-to-point basis in the rural Bangladesh dropped to 5.43 per cent in the month under review from 5.76 per cent during the month immediate before.
Non-food inflation marked a rise to 6.69 per cent in July from 6.16 per cent in the previous month, June.
The national statistical bureau in its statistics showed that the point-to-point inflation in the urban areas heated up to 7.28 per cent in July from 6.91 per cent in June.
The food-inflation rate in the urban areas fell to 7.58 per cent last July from 7.64 per cent in the previous month of June.
However, the non-food inflation in the urban areas was maintaining an upturn, rising to 6.96 per cent last month from 6.14 per cent in the previous month, June, the last month of FY2015.
Meanwhile, the BBS has hopped over the national wage-index rate which witnessed a rise of 7.04 per cent in July from June's 6.91 per cent (based on 2010-11 as base year).
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