Newly married couple Sethu Yasmin and MD Wahid look for some nice cut mutton at Mirpur Shah Ali Market a day before the New Year’s Eve they plan to host for friends and families to celebrate 2023 Were.
Reality hit them hard after a few hours of frantic search as it appeared they could no longer buy mutton as the price range they got from several butchers – ranging from Rs 950 to Rs 1,050 – was beyond their budget.
Both Sethu and Wahid were disappointed but not too surprised. Since the couple tied the knot earlier this year, they have been grappling with a cost of living crisis and don’t believe that things will get better in the coming year.
“Our expectations are quite low because we know the prices [of commodities] Keep going up but they never go down,” Sethu said.
Mohammad Alam, who was standing next to the butcher couple, had the same depressing tone as his sales in 2022 have come down drastically due to rising meat prices.
“It was a bad year [2022] For me. if a kilo of meat [mutton] goes above Rs 1,000, people won’t be able to afford it, right? Don’t think that 2023 will be any different.
Setu, Wahid and Alam represent the millions of Bangladeshis facing a cost-of-living crisis in 2022, a time of deep collective economic anxiety.
Throughout the year, middle-class Bangladeshis were forced to cut down on their basic and discretionary spending as the cost of living crisis skyrocketed after the government hiked fuel prices.
The prices of almost all the essential commodities have seen a huge increase during 2022.
The situation got so bad that the authorities had to intervene, notably the National Directorate of Consumer Rights Protection and the Bangladesh Competition Commission.
While the directorate conducted futile vigilance in grocery markets to keep prices from rising, the commission took the most serious step yet, asking large wholesalers and distributors of essential commodities to justify an abnormal increase in the prices of their products in a series Summoned for. Public hearing.
However, by the end of the year, it doesn’t seem like conditions have improved a bit and with recession forecast in the coming year, things are unlikely to change.
Some forecasts suggest that sky-high inflation will reduce average real wages next year and lead to significant cuts in living standards, wiping out the past decade’s growth.