The trend has resulted in spiralling prices of food items and decrease in those of non-food items, leaving the middle- and low-income group people to suffer.

The last Bangladesh Bank quarterly (BB) report says, "Some non economic factors such as syndicated market control, as reported in the media, may have been responsible for the sustained high prices of daily essentials."

Inflation rate on a point-to-point basis rose by .15 percentage point in May from the previous month this year.

In case of food items, it rose by .63 percentage point while it came down by 0.56 percentage point for non-food items.

After a record inflation rate in November last year, it continued to drop in the next three months. But from March this year, it began to go upward again and till now is showing no sign to go into reverse.

In March, the overall inflation rate rose by 0.45 percentage point from the previous month and in April it rose by 1.29 percentage point.

In fiscal 06, the tagged production rate of crops was 3.02 crore metric tons whereas the total production was only 2.82 crore metric tons. The growth was only 6 percent more than FY 05 when crop production suffered badly due to devastating floods and was much less than what is normal.

The import of different consumer items along with rice and wheat has decreased significantly, thereby adding to the rising inflation.

According to the statistics on opening of letter of credit (LC), import of consumer goods declined by 38 percent during July-March period in the last fiscal year from that during the corresponding period of FY05. Import of rice and wheat declined by 101 percent.

BB sources added that besides lack of production and decline in import, the failure to contain the market syndicates are the main causes of price hike of essentials.

In last budget, tax on per ton sugar was Tk 13,000 tax. It has come down to Tk 5,000 this year but there has not been any significant change in the price of sugar. Like before, sugar is selling at Tk 45-48 a kg.

According to the TCB, which monitors price level in Dhaka market, the price of coarse rice yesterday was Tk 3-9 percent more than that on the corresponding day last year. The rise in prices of wheat was 8 percent, lentil 32 percent, potato 94 percent, garlic 30 percent and onion 30 percent over this period.

Besides, prices of other essentials including fish and meat have also gone up by 11 to 33 percent.

According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) data, the national inflation rate was 7.95 percent in November last year and it came down to 5.72 percent in February this year.

But in May, it crept up to 7.61 percent.

In case of food items, it rose to 8.90 percent from 8.27 percent in April. For non-food items, the rate reduced from 6.43 percent in April to 5.87 percent in May.

In rural areas, the inflation was 7.70 percent compared to 7.53 percent in April. For food items, the rate was 8.46 percent in May and 7.87 percent in April and for non-food items, it was 6.35 percent in May and 6.93 percent in April.

In May, the inflation rate in urban areas was 7.41 percent against 7.27 percent in April. For food items, it was 9.94 percent in May and 9.23 percent in April and for non-food items, it was 4.67 percent in May and 5.14 percent in April.