DHAKA, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- Driven by the arrival of the winter vegetables to the market, Bangladesh's overall inflation slightly eased in November at 9.49 percent compared to the previous month, showed the latest official data prepared by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
The country's food-inflation rate on a point-to-point basis in November dipped to 10.76 percent from 12.56 percent in the previous month of October, the BBS data showed Monday.
The inflation on non-food items had also dropped slightly in November to 8.16 percent from 8.30 percent in October.
Analysts said inflation eased last month as fresh winter vegetables arrived coupled with continuous government measures.
Months after unveiling a reference lending rate, known as the "SMART," the central bank of Bangladesh has recently withdrawn the restriction on the interest spread between loans and deposits to bolster the government's efforts to rein in the skyrocketing inflation.
Bangladesh's inflation has consistently remained above 9 percent, way above the central bank's target of 6 percent for the current fiscal year from July 2023 to June 2024.
Abdoulaye Seck, World Bank country director for Bangladesh and Bhutan, has recently said inflation is likely to remain elevated in the near term, and pressure on the external sector is expected to persist in Bangladesh in the 2023-24 fiscal year depending on global conditions, domestic exchange rate, and monetary and fiscal policies. ■
