When Nobel Peace Prize laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus was appointed interim Prime Minister of Bangladesh on August 8, 2024, it sent ripples across South Asia. A moral figurehead, a global icon of microcredit, and a staunch outsider to the country’s violent partisan politics, Yunus symbolised a break from decades of entrenched dynastic rule and political vendetta.

Amid collapsing institutions, an angry electorate, and civil-military fatigue with the status quo, Yunus was seen as a consensus choice between the army, judiciary, civil society, and the international community. A technocratic interregnum was hoped to stabilise the country and lay the ground for fair elections in 2026.

One year later, Bangladesh finds itself caught in a web of economic pain, youth frustration, political gridlock, strategic realignments, and rising regional tension. Yunus’s experiment has neither collapsed nor succeeded. But the road ahead may well define the fate of Bangladesh’s democracy—and its position in an increasingly polarised Asian order.

Economic Stabilisation or Structural Squeeze?

Yunus’s administration was quick to embrace an IMF bailout package. While this helped rein in the freefalling taka and restored macroeconomic confidence, it came with harsh conditionalities—fuel and food subsidy cuts, tight fiscal controls, and spending freezes.

The economic results are mixed. Inflation has marginally eased and foreign exchange reserves have stabilised. But the social cost has been heavy. Urban unemployment remains high, rural distress is deepening, and industrial unrest has intensified—particularly in the garments sector, the lifeblood of Bangladesh’s export economy.

Economists fault Yunus for focusing disproportionately on macro-stability without parallel investment in labour-intensive sectors, small-scale industries, and youth employment. “You can’t expect people to cheer a strong taka if they’re........

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