Bangladesh: government increases gasoline and riots break out. With gas, soon on European screens
Bangladesh raised fuel prices by around 50% on Saturday, a move that will reduce the country's subsidy burden, but put pressure on inflation already above 7%.
The economy of the South Asian country, which is worth $ 416 billion, has been one of the fastest growing in the world for years, but GDP per capita remains at extremely low levels, amounting to $ 1,746 in 2021. which any change in prices comes to mean possible poverty. The surge in energy and food prices, due to the war between Russia and Ukraine, has inflated the import bill, forcing the government to borrow from global agencies, including the International Monetary Fund . However, these loans are granted with a guarantee that there is a possibility, sooner or later of repayment, for which international bodies are asking for austerity, increased taxes and reduced subsidies for products.
Thus the price of gasoline was increased by 51.2% to 130 taka ($ 1.38) per liter, that of 95 octane gasoline by 51.7% to 135 taka and that of diesel and kerosene by 42.5. %, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources said in a statement.
Rising fuel prices were inevitable given global market conditions, the ministry added, noting that the state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation suffered a loss of more than 8 billion taka ($ 85 million) on sales of oil in the six months to July.
However, the decision had a serious impact on public order, with the outbreak of large demonstrations in various cities and villages of the country. Here are some videos published by Anonyme Citoyen
In addition, huge queues have been created at the filling stations
In a much more populous country, and even much poorer and more unstable, there is a risk of an explosion of violence and anarchy similar to that which occurred in Sri Lanka, but with very dangerous implications of a religious nature. Not even 15 days ago a temple of the Hindu minority was set on fire after an artfully created provocation. Bangladesh is a huge powder keg with an Islamic majority of 167 million inhabitants. If a good part of the world explodes it will tremble.
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The article Bangladesh: the government increases gasoline and riots break out. With gas, it will soon be on European screens from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/bangladesh-il-governo-aumenta-la-benzina-e-scoppiano-rivolte-con-il-gas-prossimamente-sugli-schermi-europei/ on Sun, 07 Aug 2022 16:21:36 +0000.