People in Bangladesh are queuing late at night at gas stations to fill up their tanks after the price was raised by 52%. Angered demonstrators surrounded fuel stations across Bangladesh, demanding that the unexpected price increase be reversed. Diesel prices rose by 34 Taka per litre, the ‘highest ever’ since the country’s independence.
Soaring energy and food prices have increased the government’s import bill, prompting it to seek loans from global lending institutions such as the International Monetary Fund. Bangladesh, one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, has seen a number of student union protests in Dhaka, the country’s capital. According to the Dhaka Tribune, a protester stated, ‘Common people are already in hardship to cope with the rise in living costs, and the government’s looting of public property and mismanagement has led people to this suffering’.
Given the fact that the state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) had suffered a loss of more than 8 billion taka ($85 million), the fuel price increase was unavoidable given global market conditions. With annual inflation reaching 7.48 percent in July, Bangladesh’s inflation rate has now surpassed 6% for nine months in a row.
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