Bangladesh: Economy in recovery mode post pandemic, but battling persistently high inflation

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00:00And for more, we turn now to Yuka Roye from our business desk. Yuka, on Sheikh Hasina's 15-year watch,

00:08political freedoms curtailed more and more. Economic growth, a different story.

00:13Yeah, that's right. Well, the economy did flourish. Hasina's government did manage to turn Bangladesh

00:19from an impoverished nation into a major global manufacturing hub, especially for garments.

00:24Annual GDP growth averaged 5.5% since 2010, a strong performance in the region.

00:31Per capita GDP was even higher than India's until 2022.

00:35But the COVID pandemic exposed weaknesses in the economy, including its dependence on exports,

00:41especially garments. Coupled with high inflation brought on by the war in Ukraine,

00:45the government was driven to seek a $4.7 billion bailout from the IMF.

00:51Now, chronically high youth unemployment was another major issue. According to the World Bank's data,

00:57last year it was three times higher than the overall jobless rate.

01:01Weeks of unrest that toppled Hasina started off as a youth-led protest movement

01:06against a quota system in government jobs.

01:09While economic growth in Bangladesh is driven by the private sector,

01:13many young graduates prefer to work in the public sector for job security and higher wages.

01:18Francois, at the collapse of Rano Plaza in 2013, remember that tragedy also exposed poor

01:24and dangerous working conditions for those supporting Bangladesh's massive garment industry.

01:29So there was a lot of anger at the quota system that privileged relatives of people

01:34who fought for the country's independence and more generally over perceived corruption and inequality.

01:40So the military, heeding the call by students to bring back the 84-year-old Eunice,

01:47he was cleared of corruption charges that he says were trumped up and leveled by the Hasina government.

01:54And now he's going to be sworn in late on Thursday.

01:58Mohamed Eunice, who is a pioneer when it comes to microcredit.

02:04Microcredit, that's right. Well, Mohamed Eunice, he's above all an economist,

02:08but he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, not the Peace Prize, but not the Economy Prize,

02:14in 2006 for pioneering the concepts of microcredit, credit and microfinance.

02:20Now, what are they? He studied in the United States and returned home in the same year

02:25Bangladesh won independence from Pakistan.

02:28Soon after, fighting famine and poverty in Bangladesh became a passion for him.

02:33And he focused his research on microcredit, a way to extend a credit line of very small amounts

02:39to people who are too poor to borrow money from traditional banks.

02:44Now, in 1983, he founded Grameen Bank that specializes in microcredits.

02:50The company has now more than 9 million clients worldwide.

02:53For their work, Mr. Eunice and his organization jointly received the Nobel Prize

02:57and have been praised for bringing thousands of people out of poverty.

03:01Choosing him was a top demand by student leaders.

03:04And he says he's looking forward to working in his new role,

03:07even though he has said in the past that he has no political ambitions.

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