Ramadan has pushed up inflation last month, as month to month inflation rose marginally to 6.25% in June.
However, annual inflation stood at 6.41%, slightly down from the government’s fiscal target of 6.5% for the fiscal 2014-15, according to latest data Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics released yesterday.
In the previous fiscal year, it was 7.35%.
“Ramadan is a month when food demand goes up, edging up inflation,” said Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal while unveiling data at the NEC conference room.
On achieving the fiscal target, he said this proved that the government managed its fiscal policy well.
Annual inflation went down due continuous falling of oil prices along with commodity pieces in the international market, he added.
The inflation target has been set at 6.2% for the new fiscal year beginning from this month, taking advantage of fall in international oil prices, favourable agricultural production, continuous improvement in domestic distribution system and impact of restrained monetary policy.
The June inflation has increased by 0.06 percentage point from 6.19% in May.
Despite the government efforts to control prices, the cost of food spiked during Ramadan as demand surges for some foods particularly those traditionally needed to make fasting items such as oil, pulse, onion, garlic.
Over the last one month, the prices of palm oil increased by 2.54%, pulse (local) 4.44%, onion (imported) 7.14%, garlic 30.63% and potato 23.68%, according to state-run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).
Food inflation moved up 6.32% in June from May’s 6.23% while non-food inflation increased to 6.15% from 6.14%, BBS data showed.
In rural areas, inflation rate in June was 5.90%, which was 5.84% in May and in urban areas, it was up 6.91% from 6.87%.
In rural areas, food inflation spiked 5.76% from 5.66% and in urban areas, it climbed to 7.64% from 7.54% during the period.
In the case of non-food inflation, it rose to 6.16% from 6.14% in urban area while it remained unchanged at 6.14% in rural areas.
The national wage index rate witnessed 9.49% growth in June from 9.44% in May.
