The point-to-point inflation increased to 5.47 per cent in March last as the prices of some essential items went up mainly in the rural areas, according to official data released on Thursday.
The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) showed that the inflation rate increased by 0.15 percentage points in March last from that of 5.32 per cent in the previous month (February).
The rate was 5.48 per cent in the same month a year ago, the BBS statistics showed.
Both the food and non-food inflation rates increased in the last month compared to the previous month of February.
The food inflation increased by 0.09 percentage points to 5.51 per cent in the last month from that of 5.42 per cent in the previous month of February.
The non-food inflation also increased slightly by 0.22 percentage points to 5.39 per cent in March from 5.17 per cent in the previous month.
Meanwhile, the inflation in rural areas rose at a higher rate than that of the urban areas in the last month.
In March, the rural inflation increased to 5.55 per cent from 5.33 per cent in February.
The food inflation in the rural areas recorded at 5.83 per cent in the last month, up from 5.72 per cent in February.
The non-food inflation also increased to 5.03 per cent in March in rural Bangladesh from that of 4.61 per cent in February.
The urban inflation increased slightly to 5.31 per cent in March from that of 5.30 per cent in February.
The food inflation in urban areas recorded at 5.80 per cent in the last month, up from 5.78 per cent in February. However, the non-food inflation in urban areas dropped in the last month to 5.87 per cent from that of 5.92 per cent in the previous month.
The BBS also unveiled the wage rate index (WRI) for March this year.
It showed that the WRI rose to 6.34 per cent in the last month March from that of 6.30 per cent in February.
