The point-to-point inflation further increased by 0.29 percentage points to 5.97 per cent in September from that of 5.68 per cent in August due mainly to a significant rise in prices of essential food items in the month.

Food inflation rose by 0.52 percentage points to 6.50 per cent in September from that of 6.08 per cent in the previous month, according to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics data.

Non-food inflation also slightly increased to 5.12 per cent in the month from 5.05 per cent in August, the BBS data released on Tuesday showed.

According to the data, prices of food items, including rice, sugar, fish, meat, egg, onion, ginger, and vegetables such as potato, brinjal and other items increased significantly in the month.

Both point-to-point inflation, food and non-food inflation also increased in urban and rural areas in September from a month ago.

General inflation stood at 5.98 per cent and 5.96 per cent in urban and rural areas respectively in the month from that of 5.81 per cent and 5.60 per cent respectively in August, the data showed.

In September, food and non-food inflation increased to 6.26 per cent and 5.65 per cent respectively, which were 6.06 per cent and 5.51 per cent respectively in August.

In rural areas, food inflation went up to 6.61 per cent in the month from 6.09 per cent in August while non-food inflation rose to 4.71 per cent in September from that of 4.70 per cent in the previous month.

The BBS data also showed that monthly wage rate index (WRI) increased in September to 5.95 per cent from 5.91 per cent in August due mainly to a rise in wages in all three sectors — agriculture, industry and services.

The agriculture wage index increased to 6.23 per cent in the month from 6.16 per cent in August.

Wages in industry and services also increased to 5.26 per cent and 6.04 per cent respectively in September from 5.25 per cent and 6.02 per cent in August.