DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh's inflation rate eased for the second straight month in December, the planning minister said on Tuesday, as prices of food and other items rose at a slower pace.
Consumer prices in December rose 5.03 percent from a year earlier, slowing from an increase of 5.38 percent the previous month, Mustafa Kamal told a news conference.
In October, consumer prices climbed 5.7 percent from a year earlier, driven by an increase in food prices.
Annual food inflation in December inched lower to 5.38 percent from 5.41 percent the previous month, while non-food inflation dropped to 4.49 percent from 5.33 percent.
Average inflation was 5.92 percent in the 2015-16 financial year that ended in June, the lowest in 12 years, largely due to a sharp drop in global commodity prices and good agricultural output in the South Asian country of 160 million people.
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The government aims to hold inflation at 5.80 percent this financial year.
In January 2016, the central bank cut its key interest rate by half a percentage point for the first time in nearly three years as easing inflation gave it room to help spur economic growth.
(Reporting by Ruma Paul; Editing by Sunil Nair and Richard Borsuk)
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