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Bangladesh: Economy in recovery mode post pandemic, but battling persistently high inflation
FRANCE 24 English
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8/7/2024
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00:00
And for more, we turn now to Yuka Roye from our business desk. Yuka, on Sheikh Hasina's 15-year watch,
00:08
political freedoms curtailed more and more. Economic growth, a different story.
00:13
Yeah, that's right. Well, the economy did flourish. Hasina's government did manage to turn Bangladesh
00:19
from an impoverished nation into a major global manufacturing hub, especially for garments.
00:24
Annual GDP growth averaged 5.5% since 2010, a strong performance in the region.
00:31
Per capita GDP was even higher than India's until 2022.
00:35
But the COVID pandemic exposed weaknesses in the economy, including its dependence on exports,
00:41
especially garments. Coupled with high inflation brought on by the war in Ukraine,
00:45
the government was driven to seek a $4.7 billion bailout from the IMF.
00:51
Now, chronically high youth unemployment was another major issue. According to the World Bank's data,
00:57
last year it was three times higher than the overall jobless rate.
01:01
Weeks of unrest that toppled Hasina started off as a youth-led protest movement
01:06
against a quota system in government jobs.
01:09
While economic growth in Bangladesh is driven by the private sector,
01:13
many young graduates prefer to work in the public sector for job security and higher wages.
01:18
Francois, at the collapse of Rano Plaza in 2013, remember that tragedy also exposed poor
01:24
and dangerous working conditions for those supporting Bangladesh's massive garment industry.
01:29
So there was a lot of anger at the quota system that privileged relatives of people
01:34
who fought for the country's independence and more generally over perceived corruption and inequality.
01:40
So the military, heeding the call by students to bring back the 84-year-old Eunice,
01:47
he was cleared of corruption charges that he says were trumped up and leveled by the Hasina government.
01:54
And now he's going to be sworn in late on Thursday.
01:58
Mohamed Eunice, who is a pioneer when it comes to microcredit.
02:04
Microcredit, that's right. Well, Mohamed Eunice, he's above all an economist,
02:08
but he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, not the Peace Prize, but not the Economy Prize,
02:14
in 2006 for pioneering the concepts of microcredit, credit and microfinance.
02:20
Now, what are they? He studied in the United States and returned home in the same year
02:25
Bangladesh won independence from Pakistan.
02:28
Soon after, fighting famine and poverty in Bangladesh became a passion for him.
02:33
And he focused his research on microcredit, a way to extend a credit line of very small amounts
02:39
to people who are too poor to borrow money from traditional banks.
02:44
Now, in 1983, he founded Grameen Bank that specializes in microcredits.
02:50
The company has now more than 9 million clients worldwide.
02:53
For their work, Mr. Eunice and his organization jointly received the Nobel Prize
02:57
and have been praised for bringing thousands of people out of poverty.
03:01
Choosing him was a top demand by student leaders.
03:04
And he says he's looking forward to working in his new role,
03:07
even though he has said in the past that he has no political ambitions.
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