The monthly non-food inflation rate rose to a three-year high due to increased house rent, educational material prices and school admission fees.
The non-food inflation stood at 8.78% in January, which is the highest since January 2013 when it was 9.09%. During the last month, it was 7.05%.
While releasing the data, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal yesterday said: “Rising house rents, education material prices and admission fees of school children are the factors for rising non-food inflation.”
However, overall inflation eased to 6.07% in the last month after creeping up in previous month, softened by the stable food prices, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) latest data.
Overall inflation was 6.1% in December. Food inflation fell to 4.33% in January from 5.48% during the period.
He said food inflation rate did not soar as the supply chain was good with availability of vegetables and other items.
The minister hoped that the overall inflation rate in the current fiscal year would be declined further as macroeconomic scenario was good.
In urban areas, food inflation was down 5.96% from 7.14% and non-food inflation saw a rise of 9.25% from 6.98% during the period.
In rural areas, food inflation dropped 5.96% in January, down from 4.76% in December while non-food inflation soared to 8.37% against 7.10%.
The national wage index rate witnessed a 6.03% growth in January against 6.46% in December.
The average year- to-year rate of inflation from January 2015 to January 2016 stood at 6.20%, which was 6.87% from January 2014 to January 2015.
