Atmosphere tense near Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, and Chittagong, the largest port of the country. The drivers cut the contact and got off the truck. The main national union triggered the general strike, Friday, November 5, after the announcement of an increase of 23% of the price of diesel fuel. “We will continue until prices down,” said Tajul Islam, one of the representatives of the union. Bus drivers joined the movement.
The Bangladesh is not the only one to see anger climbed on this rise. For a week, tens of thousands of drivers dropped the steering wheel in Thailand. On October 19, they had invaded the streets of Bangkok. Same thing in Indonesia, where protests, shortages and contraband multiply.
It must be said that prices have grown by more than 60% since the beginning of 2021 in the region, as a result of the outbreak of oil prices. China has reduced exports from its refineries to satisfy its domestic needs and the Philippines have increased their imports.
Supply difficulties
This crisis is in addition to the long list of sand grains that drink the global commercial machine. It already lacked truckers on arrival at the port of Los Angeles, in the United States. From now on, there are no more drivers in the supplier countries. Until then, Bangladesh, like its neighbors, generously subsidized fuel prices.
This becomes increasingly difficult because of the flight of courses and a weakened budget by the health crisis. COP26’s dealers currently standing in Glasgow (Scotland) also receive the message: In these large countries, trade growth is still built on cheap black gold and subsidized. For the time being, there is no replacement solution on the table.
It is also a bad news for Western economies, already facing shortages with all kinds that grow upwards. In its marketing note, the Banque de France notes that 56% of the industry’s bosses she interviewed ensure supply difficulties. They are 86% in the automobile. Asia is the lung of supply in spare parts of the Western industries. Chitagong drivers have also become agents of dissemination of world inflation.