Rural Poverty Surges to 29.4%

Wage growth in Bangladesh slowed to 8.12% in February, down from 8.16% in January, marking the 37th consecutive month where inflation outpaced wage increases. The gap between inflation and wage growth stood at 1.2 percentage points, worsening economic conditions for low-income workers.

Ring Shine Textiles reported a further decline in its financial performance for Q4 2024, with losses widening year-on-year. The company's earnings per share (EPS) fell to Tk -0.71 for October–December 2024, compared to Tk -0.55 in the same quarter of 2023. For July–December 2024, EPS dropped to Tk -1.50, worsening from Tk -1.41 in the previous year.

Bangladesh’s per capita income declined by $46 to $2,738 in FY 2023-24, marking the third consecutive year of decline, according to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). The highest recorded per capita income was $2,793 in 2021-22, which dropped to $2,749 in 2022-23.

Real wage growth in Bangladesh has remained negative for 36 consecutive months as inflation consistently outpaces wage increases, forcing low-income households to cut back on food consumption. In January 2024, wage growth stood at 8.16%, 1.78 percentage points below the 9.94% inflation rate, according to BBS data.

Persistently high inflation since 2022 has pushed an additional 79 lakh people into poverty in Bangladesh, raising the total number of people living below the poverty line to 3.82 crore. The inflationary pressure has also placed an additional 98 lakh people at risk of falling into poverty, according to a study by the Research and Policy Integration for Development (RAPID).

Persistently high inflation in rural Bangladesh has led to significant shifts in food consumption patterns, with the poorest households increasingly relying on rice while reducing their intake of protein-rich foods, according to a Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) survey.