Businesses in Bangladesh managed to demonstrate resilience in 2023 despite lingering challenges stemming from the war between Russia and Ukraine and the fuel price volatility in the international market, said Rupali Chowdhury, president of the Bangladesh Association of Publicly Listed Companies (BAPLC).

“The burgeoning middle-class showed resilience, so businesses survived.”

She said though the war was a global phenomenon, Bangladesh was also impacted by its high dependency on fuel imports to run electricity plants.

Chowdhury, a former president of the Foreign Investors’ Chamber of Commerce & Industries, says 2023 was a challenging year for businesses except for those in one or two sectors and it started in 2022.

Inflation was high in 2023 due to the exchange rate fluctuation, which ultimately weakened the value of the local currency significantly against the US dollar.

“So, the consumption for products declined She