Inflationary bites make daily wage earners to bleed

The gap between inflation and wage rate growth has seen a tremendous rise during the last couple of years, but in May it rose to a nine-month high indicating that the majority of the population is going through a great financial trouble. For the poor people, it has become a hard battle for survival. More to it, the prices of daily essentials are increasing.
It was reported a few days ago that the country has witnessed the inflation rate of 9.94 per cent, highest in the last 11 years. But according to data from Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), in the last month the wages of low and unskilled workers grew 7.32 per cent, which was 2.62 percentage points lower than the inflation rate of 9.94 per cent recorded in the month.

Does the government have anything at its disposal to close the widening gap between inflation and the wage rate growth? Even the economists who stand besides this government that has brought this economic crisis to the country are suspicious about it. Added to this bleak scenario is the unprecedented load-shedding the country is at present going through.

The government has said that the load-shedding situation would further intensify in the days ahead. It does not have money to buy coal and fuel oil. As a result of load-shedding, industrial production is being greatly hampered. It means that the inflation crisis will deepen further. But with the rate of inflation there is no prospect of the wage growth rate increase.
Although the wage growth has been slowly rising since July last year, it has remained behind the inflation rate for the 16th consecutive month. Bangladesh is witnessing a rise in inflation for more than a year after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war exacerbated the disruptions in the global supply chain already broken by the Coronavirus pandemic.
Amid this depressing outlook, the budget has been presented in the parliament a few days ago that has proposed to contain inflation to only 6 per cent. Does the government have a magic wand to do this or is it making fun with the populace?

Any cosmetic solution such as increasing the government’s social safety net programmes will not be a sustainable solution to save the poor people. It is now necessary though. The fact is inflation has to be controlled. What is the way? There is no concrete answer to it either in the proposed budget or in the hands of the policymakers. The planning minister’s answer that the government would do ‘whatever is required to bring down inflation’ is nonsense.