Bangladesh’s July inflation rises to 5.62 pct

DHAKA, Aug. 21 (NsNewsWire) — Bangladesh’s overall inflation rose to 5.62 percent in July, the first month of the current 2019-20 fiscal year, due to soaring food and non-food costs, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
   The country’s average inflation rate went up from June’s 5.52 percent on a point-to-point basis, reports Xinhua.
   At a press conference in Dhaka on Tuesday, Bangladeshi Planning Minister MA Mannan released the July inflation data prepared by BBS.
   The BBS data showed the country’s food inflation in July slightly increased to 5.42 percent from 5.40 percent in June.
   For the non-food items, the inflation rate increased to 5.94 percent in July from 5.70 percent in June.
   The average inflation rate in Bangladesh during the 12 months of the last 2018-19 fiscal year (July 2018-June 2019) reached 5.48 percent.
   The Bangladeshi government aims to keep average inflation limited to 5.5 percent in the current fiscal year 2019-20 fiscal ending in June.
   The Bangladeshi government in June unveiled a record 5.23 trillion-taka (about 62 billion U.S. dollars) national budget, targeting an economic growth of 8.2 percent and average annual inflation rate of 5.5 percent for the 2019-20 fiscal year starting in July.  Enditem