A recent World Bank report stated that rising prices of food were a cause for concern for 71% of families in Bangladesh.
The global lender revealed this in its Food Security Update in December, when prices of all vegetables were spiraling in the country's retail markets despite adequate supply given the peak harvest season.
The report classified countries into four categories based on the rate of food inflation, placing Bangladesh in the second highest category with 12.6 percent for the October-November period.
Meanwhile, neighbouring India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bhutan and Nepal had much lower figures.
In October, overall inflation in Bangladesh stood at 9.93%, according to the state-run Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
However, inflation fell by 44 basis points to 9.49% in November, led by a decline in both food and non-food prices.
But the prices of commodities on which low-income groups are dependent still remain high.
According to the World Bank report, Bangladesh government's food grain production targets for fiscal year 2022-23 were marginally underachieved.
There were 1.85 million tonnes of food grain in government stocks as of December 10 last year whereas 1.76 million tonnes in June, as per the report.
It said food grain import bills were 1.4% lower than that in 2022 while prices of non-grain food items were 20% lower.
Domestic rice prices have remained largely stable, although the price of high-quality rice has fallen since April last year.
Meanwhile, according to the primary findings of a survey conducted by the BBS, one in every five households in Bangladesh experienced food insecurity in 2023.
The BBS carried out the survey for "Food Security Statistics 2023" last June on 29,760 households across the country.
Some 0.83% of the households faced "severe" food insecurity while 21.08% "moderate", according to the survey, the full report of which is yet to be published.
