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commodities are rising,” Rashid added.
For years, Ziaur Rahman Bulbul, a phone repair shop owner of Shyamoli, had been sharing sacrificial bulls with a friend.
But this year, the two friends could not afford the animal and had to invite five other people to share the cost.
Bulbul does not earn what he used to in 2019. “The high cost of living is hurting me badly,” he said.
Just two months ago, the father of two moved to a smaller home so that he could make rent. Three months ago, he sold his motorbike.
“I used to buy large, medium, and small fish and meat at least four days a week. Now I can buy once a week,” he added.
Day by day the situation is worsening, he added.
The Daily Star spoke to a number of people with limited income across the country and they said the Covid-19 situation has improved but not their earnings and that inflation was hurting a lot.
They are cutting expenses and even meals and expenditure for the Eid festival is not a priority at all.
In Bangladesh, inflation has been rising since October owing to the high cost of commodities globally amid lingering supply chain disruptions and the Russia-Ukraine war breaking out in late February.
Inflation surged to an eight-year high of 7.42 percent in May, according to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
State-owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) data shows that between February 2020 and February 2022, the price of coarse rice increased by 32 percent, fine rice by 28 percent, and coarse lentils by 63 percent. Sugar was up by 32 percent, bottled soybean oil by 55 percent, and loose soybean oil by 83 percent.
Even the prices of detergents, toothpaste, bakery products and noodles/pasta went up.
The surging inflation in Bangladesh has sent living costs to such an extent that many families are grappling to maintain a decent life with limited budgets, said the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) last month in a media briefing.
“Apart from the higher price of basic food items, the high price of non-food items is putting a huge burden on households,” said CPD Executive Director Fahmida Khatun.
Mohammad Tapan, of Paikar Para in Bogura, runs a grocery store with his brother. They run their joint family of nine with their incomes.
“Every year we are affected by floods,” he said, adding, “People of all classes and professions come to our shop. Now middle-class and lower-income shoppers are cutting down on things.”
Mostly, customers paid in cash before but more and more people are buying things on credit, he said, adding that many these days cannot pay the amount back in full at the start of the month.
Tapan said those who used to spend Tk 8,000 a month on essentials at his store now spend Tk 4,000 to Tk 5,000.
“I used to buy new clothes for everyone in the family ahead of Eid. Now I am considering new clothes only for the children. The wife will get a sari only … no new shoes, cosmetics and other items.
“The joy of Eid is no more because of the rising cost of living,” Tapan said.
Calls grow
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priorities. That is what we need to do.”
Earlier, Javid urged other ministers to resign saying “the problem starts at the top, and I believe that is not going to change”.
“And that means that it is for those of us in that position -- who have responsibility -- to make that change.”
Cries of “bye, Boris” echoed around the chamber at the end of his speech. Most Tories were conspicuously silent when Johnson attacked the Labour opposition at prime minister’s questions. Some shook their heads.
Sunak and Javid quit just minutes after Johnson apologised for appointing a senior Conservative, who quit his post last week after he was accused of drunkenly groping two men.
Former education secretary Nadhim Zahawi was immediately handed the finance brief and acknowledged the uphill task ahead.
UK media said Nadhim Zahawi was one of the ministers who went to 10 Downing Street to ask the PM to resign.
Days of shifting explanations had followed the resignation of deputy chief whip Chris Pincher.
Downing Street at first denied Johnson knew of prior allegations against Pincher when appointing him in February. But by Tuesday, that defence had collapsed after a former top civil servant said Johnson, as foreign minister, was told in 2019 about another incident involving his ally.
At least 34 ministers and aides have quit the government since yesterday.
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen, one of Johnson’s most strident critics, said the Pincher affair had tipped many over the edge, and there were moves to get rid of Johnson by the end of this month.
Other senior cabinet ministers, including Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, still publicly back Johnson.
But as the resignations piled up, many were wondering how long that may last.
A snap Savanta ComRes poll yesterday indicated that three in five Conservative voters say Johnson cannot re-gain the public’s trust, while 72 percent of all voters think he should resign.
Johnson only narrowly survived a no-confidence vote among Conservative MPs a month ago, which ordinarily would mean he could not be challenged again for another year.
But the influential “1922 Committee” of non-ministerial Tory MPs is reportedly seeking to change the rules.
If party bosses change the one-year rule on leadership challenges, rebel Tory MPs could try again to oust him through a vote of no confidence in parliament later this summer, or in the autumn. If Johnson loses the vote, he would have to resign or call an election.
Otherwise, he would have to resign himself - possibly in the face of cabinet pressure, like Margaret Thatcher - or after a fresh wave of ministerial resignations.
However, Reuters, citing three Conservative lawmakers, reported that a new confidence vote will not be brought by his lawmakers until at least next week, after the “1922 Committee” agreed to elect a new executive before considering allowing one.
The prime minister, who received a police fine for the so-called “Partygate” affair, faces a parliamentary probe into whether he lied to MPs about the revelations.
Pincher’s departure from the whips’ office -- charged with enforcing party discipline and standards -- marked yet another allegation of sexual misconduct by Tories in recent months, recalling the “sleaze” that dogged John Major’s government in the 1990s.
Conservative MP Neil Parish resigned in April after he was caught watching pornography on his mobile phone in the House of Commons.
That prompted a by-election in his previously safe seat, which the party went on to lose in a historic victory for the opposition Liberal Democrats.
Labour, the main opposition party, defeated the Conservatives in another by-election in northern England on the same day, prompted by the conviction of its Tory MP for sexual assault.