A Year Into the Interim Government, My Grocery Bill Tells Its Own Story

I started keeping a rough tally of my weekly grocery spending out of curiosity more than anything else, and looking back over the past year, the numbers aren't encouraging. Rice, cooking oil, and vegetables have all gotten noticeably more expensive, and the taka's continued slide against the dollar hasn't helped anything that depends on imports, which in this country is a lot.

I try to be fair about this. No government controls global commodity prices entirely, and I said as much back when inflation hit during the war in Ukraine. But I also remember being told, repeatedly, that removing the previous government and its economic team would fix mismanagement and restore investor confidence quickly. A year later, foreign reserves remain under pressure, businesses I know are delaying investment decisions because of continued uncertainty, and ordinary households are absorbing the difference at the market every week.

I don't say this to score cheap political points, genuinely. I say it because I think accountability should apply to whoever is currently in charge, not just to governments that have already left office. If the promise was a better economy, I think it's fair, a year later, to ask where that promise actually stands.