DHAKA: Spiralling food prices have pushed an estimated four million Bangladeshis below the poverty line despite the country’s strong economic growth, the World Bank said on Wednesday.

World Bank senior economist Vinaya Swaroop told AFP the price of rice had nearly doubled over the past year, caused by rising inflation and shortages due to floods and a devastating cyclone last year.

“Food price inflation has caused enormous hardship in Bangladesh by eroding purchasing power of the poor,” he said.

“Four million people have been pushed back into poverty this year because of rising food prices.”

Strong economic growth between 2005 and 2008 was expected to reduce poverty in Bangladesh by five per cent – from 40 per cent to 35 – but projections had been scaled up to 38 per cent because of the higher prices, he said.

“If there was no food crisis, the poverty numbers would have looked very different in 2008,” he said.

The figures were compiled using the definition of poverty as those living on less than a dollar a day.

In its annual report, issued this week, the Consumer Association of Bangladesh said the price of food and other essentials had risen 45.5 per cent in the past year.

The latest data reported inflation at 10.14 per cent for the month of June.

However, many financial experts say the actual figure is about 20 per cent.

World Bank country director Xian Zhu said the bank was helping Bangladesh come up with measures to enhance food security.

“Increasing productivity is the only option where every year over two million people are added to the population, while the availability of cultivatable land is decreasing by one per cent,” he said.

Bangladesh, which has a population of 144 million, is one of the world’s poorest countries.

The interim government has said it is building a stock of 2.5 million tonnes of rice this year to protect the country from natural disasters or further global price hikes.—AFP