March cost more

Consumers had to shell out more in March to purchase goods and services owing to an increase in food and non-food prices, shows data of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) released yesterday. 

The BBS said inflation rose 15 basis points to 5.47 per cent in March from that a month ago, with people in rural area bearing the brunt of higher prices.

"Rising prices of essential has made it difficult for me to bear expenses of my family," said Delwar Hossain, who went back to his Rajshahi home on losing his job at a private company in Dhaka last year following the outbreak of coronavirus.

He now work as an assistant of a carpenter.

This was the third month in a row that Consumer Price Index (CPI), a measure of general increase in prices of a basket of commodities, has been rising.  In January, inflation was 5.02 per cent.

The BBS data showed that food inflation edged up 9 basis points to 5.51 per cent in March from that the previous month. The ratio of the spike was higher in case of non-food items.

Non-food cost soared 22 basis points to 5.39 per cent last month from 5.17 per cent in February.

Inflation in rural areas, where low and middle-income people mainly live, went up by 33 basis points to 5.55 per cent, fueled by a price hike of both food and non-food items.

The prices of the commodities soared recently, because of the volatility in the domestic market and manipulation by a section of unscrupulous traders, ahead of the Ramadan and lockdown to curb increasing coronavirus infections.