We will conduct a secondary research for collection of our data. It is a research method that involves compilation of existing data obtained from various channels.

For our research we plan to collect different types of articles and research papers from different sources. We initially observed so many articles and finally selected some articles that are mostly related to our topic and we got a brief idea of our topic. Some of the articles are from daily newspapers and others from some renowned research sites. The articles are ‘Consumers feel the squeeze: Prices of all daily commodities soared in 2022’ from The Business Standard. ‘Price hike of essentials: Is war the real cause?’ from The Daily Star. War, ‘Climate Change, Energy Costs: How the Wheat Market Has Been Upended’ from The New York Times. ‘A Systematic Review of the Causes and Consequences of Price Hikes in Bangladesh’ from ResearchGate. At first, we will deeply read and observe those articles and from our observation we compare our observation with our hypothesis.

Date	Activity	Name of the Group Members
24/11/2023	Background	Shiva
24/11/2023	Expert	Shiva
24/11/2023	Case study	Shafi
24/11/2023	Researcher’s notes	Shiva
24/11/2023	Research Methodology	All

The price hike made daily life more pricey. Basic needs that we need in our day to day life are getting under the grasp of inflation and causing hardship for most of the population. According to the Consumer Association of Bangladesh (CAB), consumers struggled to cope with rising prices of daily commodities all through the year 2022. From rice, flour, oil to fish, meat and vegetables – prices of 56 products soared in 2022, with five of them seeing more than 60% price hike. The following chart shows that.

Due to this people are suffering as they have to buy these in their daily life, causing them to not be able to buy whatever they want, instead they are following what they could effort. This might cause hunger or limitation on what one can or can not consume.

When a country like Bangladesh’s most essential sector is agriculture and food, the growing graph of price for this sector directly points out how suffering price hike can be. And how it is constantly grabbing us. According to Department of Agricultural Marketing the following table shows Percentage of retail price change of essential commodities

From this table we can see that from 2005 to 2011 prices of daily basic commodities have risen continuously. This is a concern for most of the people as most of their earnings are not increasing in the manner of the price. Because of this most of the people are facing lots of hardship to just fulfill their basic needs. Some of them are even facing poverty due to this.

Even though our government has fixed some prices for goods the sellers are not following those units that they are instructed to. The following picture highlights that to us.

But there are some great syndicates revolving around it that are unseen in this picture. According to Bhattacharjee and Halder (2023), syndicates like high production cost for farmers, increasing dollar rate etc are causing the farmers and sellers to increase prices for consumers.

Moreover, fuel and energy costs are increasing. The upward energy cost is causing high transportation costs. Which eventually causes a price hike. According to Bhattacharjee and Halder(2023), The government fixed the price of the 12kg LPG cylinder at Tk 1,284 for this month. But it is actually selling at Tk 1,600. Also, In 2015, the government fixed the rental rates for CNG-run four-stroke three-wheelers along with the daily deposits, the fare per kilometer, the fare per minute of breaks, and the mandatory minimum fare for passenger transport over any distance.Since then, the CNG price has gone up by Tk 8 per cubic meter, but the government did not make the corresponding adjustment. So, nothing is working as per the government-set rates. This shows how increasing costs of transportations are causing price hikes. The following picture also highlights how the increase of fuel and energy price is fatally impacting various chains.

This is also causing basic commodities to be more pricey. According to BI report (2021) farmers started to blame diesel cost increase for the inflation of the price of rice.They said the hike of diesel price by Tk 15 per liter has pushed up transportation costs.A truck that can carry 300 to 350 sacks (50kg/sack) now charges Tk 20,000 to bring rice from Kushtia to Dhaka, up from Tk 15,000 earlier.

This is also showing us how high transportation costs also affect the price of our basic daily needs.

According to an analyst of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) (2022), increase in the cost of raw materials, labor, or energy directly contributes to higher production costs, leading to price hikes. Moreover, According to the World Economic Forum(2022), disruptions in the global supply chain, such as those caused by natural disasters, trade conflicts, or pandemics, can significantly impact the availability and cost of goods. The upper class people store ration as a result lower middle class people cannot buy food. Finally, Smialek(2023) argued that, when demand outstrips supply due to factors like population growth, changes in consumer behavior, or sudden shifts in market preferences, it can lead to price increase.

There are some effects provided by the experts. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), persistent price hikes can exacerbate income inequality, disproportionately affecting low-income groups who spend a larger portion of their income on basic necessities. Moreover, economists from institutions like the Brookings Institution suggest that when prices rise, consumers tend to cut back on discretionary spending as their budgets get squeezed, impacting various sectors of the economy.

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis notes that sustained price hikes can contribute to inflationary pressures, affecting the purchasing power of consumers and eroding their standard of living.

Inflation of fuel price can cause high cost of transportation which will eventually cause price hike. According to Barua and Suman (2023) the upward trend in fuel prices contributed to rising commodity prices and inflation. Rising fuel prices have also increased transportation and manufacturing costs.

Policy implication can be an effective solution for price hike. One effective policy can be monetary policy which can be used to control. A study shows that monetary policy had a significant impact on inflation in Bangladesh (Emon, 2023). Secondly, According to Braun(2008), developing countries like Bangladesh should eliminate domestic biofuel subsidies in order to tackle price inflation.

For our research, we have studied several articles and collected two real life incidents. According to a report published in the daily star, a victim Abdul Wahab said, his two sons earn 40,000 a month but still they are struggling for food. According to Wahab, increased expenses of school stationary, medicine transport, electricity are the main reasons for their sufferings. Due to price hike he had to sell his clothing business at Sadarghat 10 years back.

According to a news report published in Al - jazeera (2021), Dhaka resident Farida Yasmin says, “All the essential foods and items prices are getting high but in comparison people’s income has not risen so it is becoming hard for middle class families like us to cope with.”

Analyzing these two incidents we can say that the main cause of price hike is discrimination between income and expenditure. As a result most middle- and low-income families in the country are forced to compromise on their standard of living due to high inflation. As a solution, the prices of our daily necessary items should be leveled up as per our income. Besides, establishing market networks that connect rural producers directly to urban consumers, reducing intermediaries and costs can be an effective solution to the price hike.

Moreover, The Daily Star spoke with two LPG distributors and three retailers and all of them said they were buying LPG cylinders at a higher rate than the price fixed by the BERC. And they are passing on the higher costs to the end users. This shows how increased cost of transportation service is leading to price hike.

Researcher’s notes on: (i) comparison of findings with hypothesis, (ii) individual and unique solution/s to the problem, and (iii) personal observation while working on the problem.

By observing the experts and authorities, we came to the conclusion that the major causes are war, increased cost of fuel and energy, syndicates and inner politics. Firstly, according to Barua and Suman (2023) , due to the war, the import rate has fallen drastically and the country's total imports from Russia in the last eight months of the current fiscal year 2021-22 were 7.83 lakh tonnes worth Rs 3,496 crore. War creates a huge impact on price hike because during war the supply of foods and other products reduces. Secondly, Increase in cost of fuel and energy production is another reason for price increase. The upward trend in fuel prices contributed to rising commodity prices and inflation. Rising fuel prices have also increased transportation and manufacturing cost (Barua & Suman , 2023). Because of the increase, the producers may not be able to sell products at the actual rate and that’s why the rate of products increases. Finally, syndicate and inner politics among the traders and businessmen is another severe cause of price hike. According to Bhattacharjee and Halder(2023), The government fixed the price of the 12kg LPG cylinder at Tk 1,284 for this month. But it is actually selling at Tk 1,600.

Considering all the findings from the research articles and expert opinions, the major effects are impact on households, suffering of the overall economy, social unrest and poverty. First of all, household purchases of a family can decrease because of the price hike. According to Emon (2023), food price inflation had a significant negative impact on household welfare, particularly for low-income households. Secondly, fuel price hike will cause an overall economic catastrophe. “The cumulative impact of the price hike of fuel will cause inflationary pressure on the economy by raising the operating cost of all energy-dependent businesses and industries”(The Daily Star, Aug 7, 2022). Finally, the price hike causes social unrest and poverty. In times of price hike people’s income does not increase and many people store ration as a result common people go through much hardship. According to Bellemare (2015), rapid and unpredictable changes in food prices that wreak havoc on markets.

First of all, enhancing agricultural practices, introducing crop diversification and investing in research and development for higher yields can stabilize food prices by increasing local production and reducing dependency on imports. Along with that, improved transportation and logistics infrastructure for the efficiency of supply chains, reducing distribution costs, and ensuring efficient movement of goods can prevent blockages that cause price fluctuations. Finally, conducting awareness campaigns to inform citizens about the factors affecting prices and how to make informed purchasing decisions. These solutions can help prevent price inflation.

We worked in groups and through the research process we observed so many challenges regarding price hike. The first observation is that the middle and lower class people are the most sufferers of price hike. In order to reduce food prices, food is being adulterated. People are suffering from various diseases and malnutrition. A clear change in consumer behavior became evident, initially met with surprise and disappointment, gradually adapting to the new price. Initially we assumed some major causes and effects of the problem but after research we found some mismatch of our research result with our assumption. The government has to be more conscious on the topic. The local authority has to be more careful to stop the self made price hike of dishonest businessmen.

Al Jazeera. (2021, July 28). Bangladesh inflation: Food and commodity prices rise sharply

[Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/cdBHvMWsKQw?feature=shared

Barua, D.,& Suman, M. (2022, March 08). Price hike of essentials: Is war the real cause?. The Daily

Star. https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/price-hike-essentials-war-the-real-cause-2977771

Braun, J. V. (2008, April 6). Rising Food Prices: What Should Be Done?. IFPRI. https://www.ifpri.org/blog/rising-food-prices-what-should-be-done

Emon, M. H. (2023, July). A Systematic Review of the Causes and Consequences of Price Hikes in

Bangladesh. ResearchGate. https://rb.gy/q82cgv

Khan, M. R. (2023, February 5). Price hike of essentials: the poor have their back against the wall. The Daily Star. https://www.thedailystar.net/health/food/price-essentials/news/price-hike-essentials-the-poor-have-their-back-against-the-wall-3239096

Name of the Group Members	ID No	Section
Shiva Prasad Sarkar	23101302	S19
Shafi Ahmed Adib	23101307	S19