Food inflation in October hit a new high, pushing the overall monthly inflation further close to double digits for the first time in the past decade and showing that the government efforts to check price hikes of essentials mostly fell flat. 

The Bangladesh Bureau of Statics recorded food inflation at 12.56 per cent in October and the overall inflation at 9.93 per cent after a brief respite in September when the headline inflation, which is a measure of the total inflation within an economy, eased a bit at 9.63 per cent.

In August, the food inflation surged 12 years high to 12.54 per cent as consumers endured spiralling of prices of egg, potato, onion, sugar, vegetable oils, meat and fish.

The prices of essentials went up further in the last month amid lacklustre market monitoring by the agencies concerned, leaving consumers with limited incomes struggled to maintain a decent diet.

The inflation updates released by the BBS on Monday once again showed clearly the futility of government initiatives to tackle the situation over the past year.

Former Bangladesh Bank chief economist MK Mujeri criticised the public agencies for not taking adequate action to cool down the inflation.

He said a comprehensive approach by the government agencies was imperative to tackle the runaway inflation.

Economists observe that the government putting down the high inflation in the county to the war in Ukraine and global food price hike was wrong.

They referred to the inflation in other countries including neighbouring Sri Lanka, saying that Sri Lanka tamed the inflation down at 4.0 per cent in August this year from 69.8 per cent in September 2022, at the time when it was facing bankruptcy amid severe dollar shortages.

Bangladesh also has been tackling a dollar crisis for the past one year, disrupting the import of essential food items.

Former World Bank Dhaka office chief economist Zahid Hussain said that the shortage in supply of many essential food items kept their prices high in the market.

Besides, the steep prices of gas and fuel oils pushed the production costs of many food items, he said.

The price of eggs recorded an increase of 32 per cent, while the price of sugar increased

by 47 per cent in past one year, according to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh.

The prices of potato, widely used as a vegetable in the country, recorded a 61 per cent rise in one year, while that of onion rose by 78 per cent.

The price hikes for garlic and ginger were 64 per cent and 95 per cent respectively, while the price hike for milk powder was around 13 per cent.

The price hike for chicken was around 25 per cent.

The BBS updates also showed that the rural people were facing a higher inflation than the urban residents.

The BBS recorded overall inflation in the rural area at 9.9 per cent in October, compared to 9.72 per cent in the urban regions.

It also recorded upward trend in non-food inflation at the national level at 8.30 per cent last month, up from 7.82 per cent in September.