Saturday, April 20, 2024
A recent Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) report has revealed that the prices of beef and bread in Bangladesh have been the highest among South Asian countries for the last four years.
The report titled “Slowdown in Global Economy and Challenges for Bangladesh: How to Tackle?” was released on Thursday in a press conference at CPD’s Dhanmondi office in Dhaka.
CPD’s report includes the prices of beef and bread from 2019 to 2022. It shows that while the price of beef in Bangladesh is at present Tk 684 per kg, the same quantity is being sold for Tk 580 in India, Tk 545 in Sri Lanka, Tk 465 in Nepal, and Tk 375 in Pakistan.
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In 2019, beef was sold in Bangladesh at Tk 554 per kg, Sri Lanka at Tk 509, India at Tk 453, Nepal at Tk 448 and Pakistan at Tk 329 per kg.
However, from 2019 to 2022, the price of beef in the global market ranged from Tk 350 to Tk 500, consistently less than the price of the commodity in Bangladesh.
A similar scenario can be seen in the case of bread prices. Half a kilogram (500gm) of bread costs Tk 62 in Bangladesh, compared to Tk 45 in Pakistan, Tk 48 in India and Nepal, and Tk 50 in Sri Lanka this year.
In 2019, the price of the same quantity of bread was Tk 59 in Bangladesh, Tk 37 in Pakistan, Tk 40 in India, Tk 50 in Nepal and Tk 39 in Sri Lanka. It shows that while the price either declined slightly in most of the other countries, it went up in Bangladesh.
CPD’s report says that the price of bread has gone up in Bangladesh due to the increase in flour prices due to the disruption of Bangladesh's wheat imports for the Russia-Ukraine war. However, the report did not outline any reasons behind the significant hike in beef prices.
