Wage growth in Bangladesh dropped slightly last month after climbing for 30 months since January 2022.
As a result, the gap between the inflation rate and wage growth hit 3.73 percentage points, the highest in at least a decade, according to official data.
The wage growth of low-paid and unskilled workers declined to 7.93% in July while overall inflation was 11.66%, showed the Wage Rate Index (WRI) of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
Annual inflation hit a 12-year high of 9.73% in FY24 and although wage growth has been slowly climbing since July 2021, it has been outpaced by rising prices for the past 30 months, according to the data.
High inflation, particularly food inflation, has affected the purchasing power of low-income people and forced them to cut back on nutritional foods.
In July, Bangladesh's worsening economic crisis spun off a price shock, with food inflation crossing 14% for the first time in 13 years.
Food inflation hovered above 9% since May 2023 and exceeded 9.5% in each month of FY24 except February.
The overall wage growth for workers in the agriculture sector decreased to 8.21% in July from 8.33% the month prior.
Meanwhile, the industrial sector witnessed wage growth of 7.52%, up from 7.42%.
However, the service sector saw a sharp decline in wage growth from 8.50% in June to 8.27%.
