Food inflation dropped significantly to 8.24% in March
TBS Report
05 April, 2026, 04:15 pm
Last modified: 05 April, 2026, 05:46 pm
Illustration: Ashrafun Naher Ananna/TBS Creative
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Illustration: Ashrafun Naher Ananna/TBS Creative
Inflation in the country decreased to 8.71% in the month of March, on a general point-to-point basis, according to the latest data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
In February, this rate was 9.13%, and one year ago, in March 2025, it was 9.35%.
The BBS released the data today (5 April) as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) flagged on 3 April that world food prices climbed in March to their highest level since ‌September last year and for the second month in a row.
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The FAO cautioned that prices could climb further if the Middle East conflict, which has already pushed up energy costs, continues.
Infographics: TBS
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Infographics: TBS
The BBS data also showed that the overall inflation decline in Bangladesh was driven by a sharp drop in food prices, which fell over 100 basis points to 8.24%, from 9.30% in February.
However, in March of last year, food inflation was 8.93%.
On the other hand, non-food inflation rose slightly to 9.09% last month, compared to 9.01% in February.Â
Nevertheless, in this sector, inflation was relatively higher a year ago in March 2025, at 9.70%.
Both rural and urban areas experienced a modest decline in overall inflation.
In rural areas, the general point-to-point inflation stood at 8.72% in March down from 9.21% in February 2026 though it was higher at 9.41% in March 2025.
Rural food inflation declined to 8.02% from 9.07% while non-food inflation increased to 9.38% from 9.34%.
In March, 2025, rural food and non-food inflation were 8.81% and 9.97% respectively.
In urban areas, general inflation declined to 8.68% in March from 9.07% in February.
Urban food inflation decreased to 8.78% from 9.87% whereas non-food inflation increased to 8.62% from 8.57%.
In January 2025, urban food and non-food inflation were 9.18% and 9.95% respectively.
Meanwhile, in March, average wages for low-paid skilled and unskilled labourers rose slightly to 8.09%, up from 8.06% in February, according to data released by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics on 5 April.
Although inflation eased to 8.71% in March from 9.13% in February, workers are still falling behind, extending a streak of declining real incomes to 50 consecutive months since February 2022.
In July 2024, inflation had surged to 11.66% while wage growth remained stuck at 7.93%, creating a painful gap of 3.73 percentage points. That gap has now narrowed to 0.62 percentage points.