Finance Adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed today expected that the prices of essential commodities will drop slightly during the holy month of Ramadan as the government has already implemented various measures to ensure affordable prices of the commodities. 

“The government has reduced the import duty on essential commodities such as dates, rice, pulses, sugar and oil to zero. There are many gaps among suppliers, importers and producers. There are many middlemen among them. It is not right that we can eliminate all. We are trying to ensure affordable prices in the market,” he said while talking to BSS in a recent interview at the Bangladesh secretariat in the city.

According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the country's Consumer Price Index fell to 9.94 percent in January, 2025 from 10.89 percent in December, 2024.

 Regarding inflation, Salehuddin said, the government is providing its best efforts to bring down inflation to a tolerable level.  

 “There has not been much improvement in the inflation left by the previous government. Inflation is a genuine concern. It will take some time to recover. Our biggest issue is to increase supply according to demand,” he added. 

He mentioned that Bangladesh has created buffer stock so that there is no shortage of any product during Ramadan and prices will also not increase. 

“We have kept rice and wheat in stock at the local level so that there is no problem in the supply of these daily necessities during Ramadan,” he added.

He said inflation has been increasing for the past two years due to different mega projects. 

“During that time, various big projects were taken up. It is a matter of demand and supply. But at that time, supply did not increase compared to the demand. Besides, money had been scarce in the past years. That is why inflation has increased. This issue is being strictly monitored in the monetary policy of Bangladesh Bank,” he added.

 Salehuddin, however, noted that all types of products including poultry, fish, vegetables and rice were damaged due to floods occurred in 7-8 districts at once.

 He said a committee has already been formed locally to monitor the commodity markets to check prices. 

Recently, the finance adviser asked deputy commissioners to monitor the market.