Sukanta Halder

The company is exporting to more than 52 countries and employs over 50,000 people

People are switching to shampoo mini-packs from regular bottles, women are sacrificing their tiny luxuries of cosmetic puffs while households are embracing cheap but substandard detergents for laundry: this is exactly what happens when brutal price pressures push around 78 lakh people below the poverty line in just two years and stalk another 1 crore to do so.

In one of your most distant childhood memories, you may recall hearing the high-pitched howl of a lone jackal way off in the distance while enjoying the evening from the comfort of your village home.

Throughout 2024, gold seemingly became synonymous with price hikes amid economic turbulence, a weakening taka and plummeting interest rates on savings tools, making the precious metal a safe bet for middle and upper-middle-income people, according to jewellers.

Bangladesh is now in a comfortable position in fish and meat production, bringing comfort to the government in ensuring food security.

Global commodity prices are projected to decrease in 2025, but Bangladesh may fail to reap the benefits if the depreciation of the local currency continues.

Bangladesh relies heavily on imports of essential food items such as edible oils, lentils, onions, sugar, and spices, which have seen a 5 percent year-on-year price increase.

Despite a decision by the interim government to hike soybean oil prices nearly three weeks back, many kitchen markets across Bangladesh, including the capital Dhaka, are missing an adequate supply of the key cooking ingredient.

As inflation greets Bangladeshis at breakfast time, even the humble paratha becomes a symbol of struggle. Once hearty and filling, it now arrives thinner and lighter -- a daily reminder of the unending calculations between hunger and affordability.

Broiler chicken prices have increased in the capital’s kitchen markets amidst an alleged supply shortage, which traders attributed to a rise in consumption at different events and festivities marking the winter season.

Seventy-year-old Shamsul Haque remembers how clean the Balutikar canal was when he moved to Kallagram village in Sylhet 20 years ago.

In the 1990s, Dhanmondi was just another quiet neighborhood in Dhaka, with the occasional tinny tinkle of rickshaws on Satmasjid Road. If you craved something to renew your taste buds, Bailey Road, Gulshan, or Banani were the places to go.

The Beximco Group has laid off nearly 40,000 workers across its 15 apparel units, citing a lack of work orders for its export-oriented garment and textile factories in Dhaka’s outskirts of Gazipur.

Bangladesh has been exporting agro-processed foods for over three decades, but the sector has not grown much and still remains highly concentrated within a few countries where Bangladeshi diasporas are the primary buyers. 

Non-life insurance companies in Bangladesh have settled just 10 percent of claims in the first nine months of this year, as per data of the Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA).

Many consumers said they are still not getting bottled soybean oil in kitchen markets in various parts of the country including Dhaka despite the government allowing refiners to hike prices of the essential cooking ingredient two days ago.

Retailers of branded apparel, shoes and cosmetics in Bangladesh got a fairly good response from customers upon offering discounts and cashback on Black Friday amid high inflationary pressure and political uncertainty in the country.

The interim government has reduced taxes and duties on soybean and palm oil to lower prices amid high inflation but this has not helped raise imports. Instead, there is a shortage of bottled edible oil in the markets.

Life insurers in Bangladesh saw some 3.47 lakh policies discontinued in the January-September period this year amid worsening financial health of clients, political changeover and repeated flooding devastating lives and livelihoods in vast areas of the country.

Potato cultivation has increased across Bangladesh as farmers have been getting higher prices year-round amid elevated inflation in the country.