January 6, 2010

Inside

 

Good dwarfs bad--Shakhawat Liton

No letup in price spike--Rejaul Karim Byron

High on plans, low on implementation
--
Sharier Khan

One hurrah from upazila polls --Shakhawat Liton & Hasan Jahid Tusher

Promises not kept--Shariful Islam

Health sector gets out of sickbed--Mahbuba Zannat

Terror being tackled with 'iron hand’--Julfikar Ali Manik & Shariful Islam

Govt smartly pursuing thaw in thorny ties
--Rezaul Karim

Steps left a lot to be desired -- Tawfique Ali
One year on, Government in spotlight
Manpower stays out in the cold-- Porimol Palma
Anti-graft body hamstrung--Emran Hossain

Economy survives recession scare-- Rejaul Karim Byron


More said than done
-
-MD Hasan

Judiciary separated but not free yet
--Ashutosh Sarkar


Worst averted, politically
--Julfikar Ali Manik

Farmers make govt smile--Reaz Ahmad

Save river vow awaits result--Pinaki Roy

Education with vision--Wasim Bin Habib




 

 

No letup in price spike
Cost of living soars on food inflation

Rejaul Karim Byron

The Awami League-led government keeping in mind its election pledges initially bagged some successes in bringing down the prices of essentials. But recently the cost of living and the prices of food items have started going up again.

After the government came to power in January 2009, food prices, especially the prices of rice, went down significantly -- coarse rice price decreased to around Tk 17-Tk 18 per kg from Tk 28-Tk 29 before. Other essentials such as oil, pulse, potato and sugar also witnessed a price cut.

Assuming power, the government lowered fertiliser prices twice, and cut diesel price. Also, the agriculture ministry launched a continuous monitoring drive to ensure smooth supply of fertiliser and other agricultural inputs. And so farm output increased and production cost marked a fall.

The overall inflation, which crossed a double-digit mark during the caretaker government regime, came down to 2.25 percent in June last year with food inflation falling to 0.25 percent.

Although the prices of commodities fell, the cost of living could not be brought down significantly from the level it was during the caretaker government regime. So a slight fall in the living cost did not bring much comfort in public life, as their real income did not go up.

But, inflation has started increasing since July last. In October, the overall inflation rate stood at 6.71 percent, while food inflation jumped to 7.78 percent in October from 0.25 percent in June.

A report of Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) showed on December 24 that the price of coarse rice soared by around 11 percent and stood at Tk 25-Tk 26 per kg. The prices of edible oil, pulse and flour also increased.

The rise in commodity prices on the international markets and local weather condition are some factors. In the last several months the commerce ministry took some initiatives to contain the prices of the essentials like sugar, edible oil and pulses, but the moves could not impact positively on the prices.

The finance minister after taking office talked of controlling business syndicates and activating TCB to rein in the price spiral. But the commerce minister said he did not think there was any syndicate active and there was no need to intervene in the market by TCB.

Later, the commerce minister backtracked on his earlier stance and took initiative to lower prices of commodities by sales through the state-run trading corporation. But the TCB failed to import commodities timely and supply to the market.

Soaring prices of essentials coupled with acute unemployment problem, global recession and sluggish local investment have made things worse.

The latest survey conducted by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) shows unemployment rate is on the rise.

According to labour force survey in 2005-06, the number of unemployed persons was 21 lakh, which was 20 lakh in 2002-03 survey. However, economists think the number of unemployed is much higher.

The BBS did not conduct any labour force survey after 2005-06. However, independent research organisation Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) has recently conducted a study in this regard.

The CPD study titled "Impact of Global Economic Crisis on the Employment and Labour Market of Bangladesh: A Rapid Assessment" projected that unemployment rate will marginally increase by 3.7 percent in the current fiscal year.

The jobless rate increased by 3.6 percent in fiscal 2007-08 and fiscal 2008-09.

Outflow of migrant workers also leaves a dull impression.
In fiscal 2007-08 some 10 lakh people went abroad for jobs, while the number dropped to 6.5 lakh in 2008-09. In the first four months of the current fiscal year manpower export fell by 47 percent over the same period a year ago, and the number stood at 1.5 lakh.

The prospective labour force that failed to go abroad will create a pressure on the local labour market, resulting in a drop in the wage of the existing labourers.

The CPD report said a large number of workers would be absorbed in agriculture and service sectors, and so a big portion of these labourers in farm sector will increase underemployment.

Senior Research Fellow at CPD Khondaker Golam Moazzem said agricultural sector would absorb some more labourers as it posted a better growth.

However, he said, the government in the last 11 months took a number of initiatives for employment generation, which is positive. The government has also given emphasis to small and medium enterprises and distributed more farm loans, which Moazzem said would play a positive role in creating more employment.


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