Businesses have become badly affected by the blockade programme called by the 18-party alliance since Monday.
During the blockade of rail, roads and waterways, supply of essential commodities has also been disrupted, leading to price hikes.
Those who count on daily earning from their small businesses to survive are the worst sufferers.
Such long blockades and hartals also lead to production halt in factories, which, the commerce ministry officials fear, might result in the increased dependency on imported items.
FBCCI adviser Manzur Ahmed said the country’s economy is now controlled by political decisions.
“This is bad for any country,” he said comparing the country right now with the sinking Titanic ship.
“Without political stability, the government cannot achieve any economic progress and business development.”
Meanwhile, the harvest of local onion already dropped the price significantly, which in recent time was skyrocketing.
But prolonged hartals and blockades comes as threatening again to soar the price, according to the commerce ministry officials.
Onion price soared again to Tk60 from Tk40 in just one week.
A Narayanganj-based salt trader Paritosh Kanti Saha said he was struggling to get a truck to ship his salt to northern districts on Thursday. But he was refused by several truckers as they did not want to take any risk of coming under attack by the picketers.
“The price of a truck price is some Tk6 million. Who will take their trucks to the danger?” Paritosh understood the concerns of the truckers.
Few trucks dared to transport goods during hartals and blockades, but they charged much higher than the usual.
Such extra charges eventually hike the prices of essential commodities including vegetables and fishes.
“Small businesses are the worst victims in such political instability,” said Dr Shamsul Alam, member of general economic division of Planning Commission.
He said: “While the prices in rural areas decline, they go up in the urban areas as political turmoil has disrupted supply.”
Dr Alam however thinks the overall economy of the country will not be so affected by hartal and blockade programmes.
According to the economists, the more dependency on imported items and suspension of local production will cast a long-term impact on the economy.
They said if more imported items enter the country will lead to less generation of local employments and retardation of economic development.
Financial institutions also cannot operate during such programmes like hartal and blockade, which causes the increase of illegal financial transaction, the economists pointed out.
Former adviser to caretaker government Dr Mirza Azizul Islam said blockades are breaking the supply chain of the country.
“Such disruption in supply reduces economic activities. As as result, the domestic production also slows down,” Dr Mirza Aziz emphasised.
Meanwhile, World Bank and Bain & Company jointly analysed the business implications of supply chain barriers recently.
The report presented in the World Economic Forum 2012 revealed a multinational consumer products company operating in Africa demonstrates that it is possible to take advantage of market opportunities in countries plagued by supply chain problems—as long as decision makers remain intently focused on mitigating the high risks and costs those barriers impose.
Africa is fraught with complexity for foreign companies hoping to capitalise on its strong growth potential, the report said.
It mentioned the continent is rife with political and social instability, economic mismanagement, mercurial regulatory regimes and persistent security concerns.
A lack of services and shoddy transportation infrastructure create massive inefficiencies that drive up prices.
The report added that a global packaged goods manufacturer has experienced the worst of many of these supply chain barriers.
Civil unrest in Nigeria has brought its operations to a temporary halt in the past, said the report, adding that sudden currency depreciations have cost it millions overnight.
In historically unstable markets like
Zimbabwe and Malawi, the inability to trust credit agreements means business is done in cash.