By the 10th of the month, the salary is running short. By the 20th, there is not enough money for groceries. By the 25th, the search begins for someone willing to lend money. By the end of the month, anxiety sets in over how to repay the debt.
Jobs are scarce and wages, low. When salaries rise, expenses surge too. Illness brings doctors’ fees, medical tests and medicine bills.
Even at bedtime, grocery bills, rent and children’s futures dominate people’s thoughts.
Hafizul Islam, an employee of a private organisation in Dhaka, echoes that pressure.
“I simply cannot cope any more, brother. The way everything is becoming more expensive, from everyday essentials to electricity, bus fares and house rent, it is getting harder by the day just to survive,” he said.
Sanjay Kumar, a resident of Dhaka’s Rayshaheb Bazar, has seen his income rise slightly but living costs increase much faster, forcing him to dip into his savings.
“The cost of everything has increased so much that my salary is no longer enough to get through the month. I had some savings, but those are now almost exhausted. If prices continue to rise like this, I cannot figure out how I will run my household or pay for my children’s education,” he said.
Bangladesh, once a model of poverty reduction, is seeing poverty rise again, leaving millions living just above the poverty line increasingly vulnerable.
According to the World Bank’s October 2026 Bangladesh Development Update, nearly 8 million people have fallen below the poverty line over the past four years, including around 2.1 million in the last financial year alone.
The national poverty rate rose from 18.7 per cent in 2022 to an estimated 22.5 per cent in FY26. Another 62 million people live just above the poverty line.
Dhaka University Economics Professor Muhammad Shahadat Hossain Siddique told TIMES, “A single shock, such as losing a job, a serious illness, a business loss, a natural disaster or a sudden increase in essential commodity prices, could push them into poverty.”
The crisis, therefore, extends beyond those already poor to millions more at risk.
In 2020, the World Bank described Bangladesh as a global model for poverty reduction. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics data showed that poverty had fallen from 48.9 per cent in 2001 to 18.7 per cent over two decades, driven by growth in agriculture, industry, remittances and employment.
But the trend reversed after 2022.
WB estimates show that around 800,000 people became newly poor in 2023. In 2024, another 3.7 million fell into poverty as the rate reached 20.5 per cent. The rate exceeded 21 per cent in 2025, with 1.4 million more becoming poor, followed by approximately 2.1 million in FY2025-26.
Sohel Mia, who runs a tea stall outside the DU’s Faculty of Fine Arts, recently lost his mother to illness. He remains haunted by his inability to afford adequate treatment and medicine.
“We are poor people, brother. Whatever I earn from running the stall all day is just enough to live from hand to mouth. My mother passed away. I did take her to hospital, but I could not provide her with proper medicine and care,” he lamented.
His experience reflects the hardship facing many families as prolonged high inflation drives poverty.
Average inflation reached 10 per cent in FY25, hitting low-income households hardest.
Although some global commodity prices have fallen, domestic consumers have seen limited relief. The depreciation of the taka, supply-chain weaknesses and higher electricity and fuel prices have pushed up production and transport costs.
Average retail electricity prices rose by around 16.7 per cent, while low-income workers’ wages failed to keep pace with living costs. Their real wages turned negative again in August.
Centre for Policy Dialogue Distinguished Fellow Fahmida Khatun said inflation had eased somewhat but remained unacceptably high. Families were exhausting their savings, borrowing and even selling assets, including land, to survive.
The World Bank warned that persistently weak labour demand, falling real wages and high inflation were eroding households’ financial security. Illness, unemployment or another price shock could push many below the poverty line.
WB figures show that Bangladesh’s economic growth slowed from 5.8 per cent in FY23 to approximately 3.4 per cent in FY26.
Private investment contracted by 0.5 per cent and public investment by 0.7 per cent in FY26, while real exports of goods and services fell by 4.8 per cent.
Weak business confidence, banking-sector problems, energy shortages and political uncertainty are discouraging investment. Slower growth in the ready-made garment sector and weak global demand have added pressure.
Petroleum import costs surged by more than 107 per cent in the last financial year.
Labour-market conditions have also deteriorated, with many women losing jobs in the industrial and services sectors and leaving the workforce.
Women’s labour force participation fell from 42.8 per cent in 2022 to 38.4 per cent in 2024.
The WB projects that around 630,000 net jobs could be created in the next financial year, but this would be insufficient to accelerate poverty reduction.
Bangladesh spends approximately 3.5 per cent of its gross domestic product annually on fuel and fertiliser subsidies and social protection programmes, but much of the support fails to reach its intended beneficiaries.
According to the WB, 62 per cent of people in the poorest 20 per cent of the population receive no benefits from major social protection programmes, while the richest 20 per cent of households receive nearly one-third of electricity subsidies.
Executive Director of the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling Selim Raihan said, “High food prices, erosion of real wages, weak private investment and a lack of productive employment are undermining the economic security of lower-income and lower-middle-income families. As most employment is informal, a single shock, such as losing a job or falling ill, can push a family towards poverty.”
He said social protection remained largely limited to helping people after they had become poor, with inadequate preventive support, social insurance and protection against income shocks.
Economic growth alone, he argued, was insufficient.
Equally important was how many jobs that growth created and whether it raised people’s real incomes.
