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.
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.
