Roughly 140 million people in Bangladesh lost power Tuesday after the government-run power grid failed.
The failure started around 2 p.m. local time, hitting the entire country except for regions in the north-west, according to Barron’s. The state-run Bangladesh Power Development Board reported that transmission had failed somewhere in the eastern area of the country but the source of the outage remains unclear, the outlet continued.
Bangladeshi officials have claimed that power will be restored by 8 p.m. local time starting with the capital, Dhaka.
Bangladesh, like much of the rest of the world, has suffered major energy and power crises in recent months largely resulting from higher global energy prices, Barron’s noted. Utilities are struggling to source enough diesel and gas to meet demand as the nation’s currency depreciates, making it difficult to import fossil fuels.
‘Put On Your Seat Belts On’: BlackRock President Warns Of Massive Shortages Due To Inflation https://t.co/ZbFkqFkrHm
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) March 30, 2022
The government started imposing long power cuts in order to conserve existing fossil fuel stocks in July, with some outages lasting as long as 13 hours every day, Barron’s reported. (RELATED: Michael Burry Sells All But One Stock, Warns Of Market Crash)
As in the U.S. and Europe, inflation in Bangladesh has crushed household budgets. Since the start of 2022, financial experts have pointed at inflation and the knock-on impact of the energy crisis as the start of a massive, global financial crisis.
In Europe, households are already being forced to choose between heating and eating, sliding toward the situation witnessed in Bangladesh on Tuesday. On Wednesday, billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller joked about using cyanide to avoid the global financial crisis and its impact on the U.S.