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Wage hike dwarfed
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Agriculture labourers saw the slowest growth with their wages rising by 6.27 per cent, up from 6.22 per cent in April.
Although the wage growth rose, it was not enough to offset the consumer prices leaps.
Mustafizur Rahman, a distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue, said food inflation in May was the sharpest since May 2014, owing to a spike in prices in international markets and import-induced inflation caused by the depreciation of the local currency.
According to Rahman, the purchasing power of workers should be calculated by taking into account the price hike of the essentials consumed by workers.
“The prices of essentials have risen significantly compared to what the official inflation figure tells us. So, from that point of view, workers have seen a significant erosion of their purchasing power.”
The point-to-point inflation growth in May was higher than the wage hike during the same period, said Nazneen Ahmed, country economist of the United Nations Development Programme Bangladesh,
“That means the real purchasing power of the low-income people has declined during this period. Though the base year for the two estimates is different, this gives an indication of real wage rate decline.”
The base year for the Consumer Price Index is 2005-06 while that of the WRI is 2010-11.
Among the sub-sectors, the wage of workers employed in the construction sector was 4.83 per cent last month. It was 4.75 per cent in April.
Division-wise, workers in the Rangpur division saw the biggest raise, taking home 9.39 per cent higher wages in May than a year ago.
The low-paid skilled and unskilled workers in Barishal came second with their pay rising 7.39 per cent.
Their counterparts in the Dhaka division experienced the slowest pace of growth at 5.07 per cent.
The pay of workers grew 6.73 per cent in Chattogram, 6.20 per cent in Khulna, 6.05 per cent in Rajshahi, and 5.83 per cent in Sylhet, BBS data showed.
Rizwanul Islam, a former special adviser for the employment sector at the International Labour Office in Geneva, thinks there is no mechanism for wages to rise in tandem with price increases.
“So, the poor and low-income people who depend on wage and salaried incomes see a decline in their real incomes and suffer an immediate crunch. A similar situation is faced by those who are self-employed in a variety of petty businesses.”
The labour economist called for taking urgent steps to help the poor and lower-income groups.
And augmenting the supply of essential foods through the usual government channels such as TCB would be the obvious way one can think of, he said.
“However, given the track record of this channel, the time has come to think about alternative modalities like food stamps to provide immediate relief to the low-income people.”
The floods have added further woes, so the affected people should receive special attention, said CPD’s Rahman.
He said the increase of the price of rice by 50 per cent from Tk 10 per kilogramme to Tk 15 under the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh’s open market sales operation might hit the poor and the marginalised.
“The social safety net programmes, in terms of allowance and coverage, should be expanded.”

BB issues
FROM PAGE B1
years as a manager of a branch.
NBFIs will have to publish advertisements in two English newspapers and two others in Bangla.
In addition, they have to display the recruitment notice on their respective websites such that qualified and transparent persons can be appointed.
The applicants have to obtain post-graduation degree from a recognised university.
Having higher educational degree on economics, banking and finance and business administration will be considered as additional qualifications.
The former chairmen, directors and officials of banks and NBFIs who were sacked from their posts cannot be appointed as managing directors.