The country’s average wage growth remained well below the inflation rate, for the 14th straight month, as per the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
This inferred that many people were being compelled to cut consumption amid falling real income and the rising cost of living.
In March, wages of low and unskilled workers grew 7.18%, which was 2.15 percentage points below the inflation rate of 9.33% that month, showed the Wage Rate Index (WRI) of the BBS.
In February, wages of workers across 44 occupations in agriculture, industry, and services grew 7.11% against a consumer price hike of 8.78%.
But on Tuesday, Planning Minister MA Mannan officially announced that inflation and wage rates were up by 55 and seven basis points respectively.
The rise in the wage rate might give a little relief to people from the inflation, he said.
Sanem recently conducted a survey on lower-income groups with a sample of 1,600 households across eight divisions, where they found more than 96% of the people reduced their meat consumption in the last six months.
The BBS collects data to measure the movement of nominal and real wages of low-paid skilled and unskilled labour in different segments through the WRI.
The March WRI data shows that workers in industry, construction, and production, were the victims of high inflation as their income growth fell compared to the previous month.
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