Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Dhaka over the weekend to protest against the Bangladeshi government and demand the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The protesters called for new elections amid growing political tensions, increasing suppression of dissent, a cost of living crisis, and broader concerns about the country’s fragile economy.
While the latest anti-government protests were triggered by the recent power cuts and a hike in fuel prices, they are only a symptom of Bangladesh’s deeper economic woes. The country’s foreign exchange reserves—thanks to a decline in garment exports and remittance inflows—are rapidly dwindling. From 2011 to 2021, the total foreign debt held by Bangladesh rose by 238 percent to $91.43 billion. (For context, Sri Lanka’s debt saw a rise of 119 percent during the same period—and that didn’t end well either.) In November, the inflation rate hit almost 9 percent, leaving thousands of unemployed garment workers now on the brink of hunger. It recently became the third South Asian nation, after Sri Lanka and Pakistan, to seek help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2022.
Bangladesh, with its large youth population, was at the forefront of economic development in South Asia when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Now the country’s rags-to-riches story is being undermined by its political and economic chaos.
