Food inflation eased in October, but pressure rose in non-food sectors

Food prices in the country have eased somewhat compared with before, but prices of non-food goods and services have risen further. That is the picture in the October inflation figures published on Monday by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.

The reality is that the downward trend in food prices is not bringing relief to other household expenses. Instead, spending pressure has grown on house rent, transport, healthcare and education, so people's overall spending burden has barely eased.

According to the bureau, non-food inflation rose to 9.89 percent in October, up from 9.30 percent in September.

Food inflation, by contrast, fell from 7.22 percent to 6.40 percent, a drop of 0.82 percentage points in one month.

With the two sectors moving in opposite directions, overall inflation edged down to 8.27 percent from 8.34 percent in September, a fall of 0.07 percentage points on a point-to-point basis at the national level.

However, the current rate is still 0.10 percentage points higher than the 8.17 percent recorded in October last year. So while the month-on-month fall in overall inflation is welcome news, the year-on-year rise makes it clear that the pressure has not fully lifted.

The bureau's figures show that the downward trend in food prices played the main role in bringing overall inflation down, but spending pressure on non-food goods and services moved the other way, rising by 0.59 percentage points in the same month.

That rise in the non-food sector has dulled part of the relief from food prices. Economists say the contrasting picture across the two sectors shows that not all kinds of spending are falling at the same pace in the market.

Although food prices have come under some control, spending on other essentials remains high. Non-food inflation in particular is 3.49 percentage points higher than food inflation.

The October figures show that the benefit of falling food prices is real, but spending in other sectors is keeping that relief limited. With rising costs for rent, transport, healthcare and education, ordinary people's monthly budgets have found no real relief.