The government is set to miss the revised inflation target of 5.7 per cent for the current fiscal ending in June. It had set a 5.3 per cent inflation target at the start of the fiscal.
"It is expected that the goods whose prices have not increased yet will also go up due to the price spike of the imported goods in the international markets," Zaid Bakht, a former research director of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), told an English-language daily.
Inflation has been gradually rising since October last year, from 5.4 per cent that month to 5.81 per cent in April this year on an average, data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) show.
Point-to-point inflation shot up to 6.29 per cent in April, the highest in 18 months. It was 6.22 per cent in March.
Analysts say the country may face even higher inflation in near future because of the higher prices of imported goods and other consumable items owing to the higher US dollar exchange rate alongside the higher global prices.
"When importers sell the imported goods in the local markets, obviously they will sell at higher prices. This will send inflation higher," said Mustfizur Rahman, a distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue.
ALCHEMPro News Desk (DS)
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