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Planning Minister MA Mannan on Tuesday said the fertiliser price rise may push up the country’s overall inflation rate.
“I can say the increased prices of fertilisers will have some impacts on the inflation rate. If production costs increase, inflation may go up as well,” he told a press conference after the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) meeting held at the NEC conference room in the capital.
He, however, said inflation would drop if diesel and oil prices decrease.
State Minister for Planning Prof Shamsul Alam said inflation will not go up if overall production increases.
The general point-to-point inflation rate increased by 0.55 percentage point to 9.33 per cent in March this year compared to the previous month. The rate was the highest in seven months.
Bangladesh's inflation reached 9.52 per cent in August last year due to rising commodity prices and record hikes in fuel prices, but it declined to 9.1 per cent in September. The August inflation rate was the highest in 11.3 years.
In 2023, the inflation rate was 8.78 per cent in February and 8.57 per cent in January, according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Inflation Rate and Wage Rate Index (WRI) in Bangladesh published by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
The government has hiked the prices of fertilisers, including urea and TSP, by Tk 5 per kg, citing an increase in rates in the international market as the reason behind the decision.
A notification, signed by agriculture ministry Deputy Secretary Hossain Ahmed and issued on Monday, said the increased prices will be effective immediately.
According to the notification, at the farmer level, the price of per kg urea and TSP will go up from Tk 22 to Tk 27, DAP from Tk 16 to Tk 21, and MoP from Tk 15 to Tk 20.
