While no country is a stranger to inflation, recent years have been particularly difficult for Bangladesh. According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), inflation has consistently remained above 9% since March of this year. This was particularly troublesome when it comes to basic needs such as food, with food inflation peaking to 12.56% in October.
All of this has been encapsulated by the 2022 Household, Income, and Expenditure Survey (HIES) where it was found that approximately 37% of households resorted to borrowing from financial entities, with the average loan per household hovering around Tk70,506 in 2022.
This has ruinous implications for our long-term economy and financial sustainability.
To get the obvious out of the way, over-dependence on loans means that people have to resort to burning through their savings, which means that if we fail in getting inflation under control Bangladesh will soon have a huge portion of the populace who are unable to afford essentials such as food and housing.
Moreover, lack of savings means that people will not have the money to invest. As Bangladesh looks to grow and diversify the economy going forward, it is of utmost importance that more and more individuals participate in the private economy and invest in new and existing businesses. While the administration has reportedly been taking a number of steps to make investment easier, none of this will matter if people don’t have the expendable cash that is needed for investment in the first place.
We need to be better when it comes to controlling inflation. A committee of industry leaders and leading economists need to be set loose to solve this problem. We also need to invest in robust social safety nets to make sure that people can afford the basic needs at the very least.
Bangladesh is on the rise, but it needs to uplift everyone alongside.
Sunday, July 19, 2026
