Finds PPRC-BIGD survey in May

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

The number of ‘new poor’ in Bangladesh has not dropped off despite the economy reopening due to the runaway inflation between January and May, found a recent study.

At the end of May, the number of ‘new poor’ in the country stands at 30.9 million, which is 18.54 percent of the population, according to the report styled “Inflation, Coping and Recovery Challenges”.

“It is a huge poverty burden,” said Hossain Zillur Rahman, executive chairman of the Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC), which jointly prepared the report with the Brac Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD).

Between May 12 and 23, 3,910 rural and urban slum households were surveyed, the fifth such survey since the onset of the pandemic.

The per capita daily income among the surveyed households was Tk 117 during the pre-pandemic period. It dropped to Tk 83 during the second shutdown in August last year.