Bangladesh: Inflation in May rises to highest level in over a decade

Bangladesh recorded its highest monthly inflation rate in over a decade as the monthly inflation reached 9.94 percent in May. It is the highest inflation rate since 2010-11 when it was reported to be 10.11 percent. The latest data was released by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) on Monday.

The increase in inflation is attributed to rise in food and non-food prices during this period. The average inflation for the period June 2022 to May 2023 has gone up to 8.84 percent which is higher than the budgetary target of 5.6 percent.

Inflation in April 2023 was reported to be 9.24 percent and in March at 9.33 percent which is higher than the comparative months in April 2022 at 6.29 percent and March 2022 at 6.22 percent.

BBS has changed the base index for calculation of inflation from 2005-06 to 2021-22 and changed its methodology for Consumer Price Index (CPI) compilation following the latest 2020 CPI manual of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Earlier, on Monday, addressing party leaders and activists in Dhaka Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that Bangladesh is facing difficulty due to the rise in price of gas, fuel, transport, commodities because of global rise in prices due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.