Bangladesh's inflation rate climbed by 1.34 percentage points in the month of February alone because of continuous rise of food prices after a steady decline for three consecutive months, according to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics ( BBS).

The Daily Star quoted BBS as saying on Monday that the inflation rate was 7.28 percent in February against 5.94 percent in January. The highest inflation rate in recent times was 7.31 percent in October 2006.

The BBS said inflation rate of food items rose by 1.71 percentage points in February while the rate of non-food item increased by 0.8 points during the same period.

The daily quoted a central bank official as saying that demand and supply of essential commodities faced a setback in February due to security forces' indiscriminate drives against hoarding, resulting in continuous hike of food prices.

"Such unsystematic drives caused shortage of commodities resulting in commodity price hike," the official said.

Central bank officials predict further rise in the inflation rate in April due to the recent hike of petroleum prices between 16 and 21 percent. As a result, costs of both industrial and agricultural products will rise ultimately keeping impact on the inflation.