As the military situation deteriorates in Myanmar, businesses are facing increased risk, with a desperate government “squeezing money from luckless companies,” according to an analysis of commercial risk by Steve Vickers Associates, a Hong Kong-based risk mitigation and consulting company, in a report made public last week.
Inflation and unemployment are taking their toll, while poverty has become entrenched across the country, topping 32 percent in early 2024 according to the latest assessment by the World Bank. Junta boss Min Aung Hlaing has acknowledged the regime has lost control over large areas of the country, with even his own children reportedly moving funds out of the country to Bangkok.
“Shortages of imported inputs, labor market disruptions, and electricity shortages have curtailed manufacturing activity,” according to Mariam Sherman, the bank’s country director for Myanmar, Cambodia, and the Lao PDR, “while an additional third of the population is classified as economically insecure. At the same time, poverty is becoming increasingly entrenched, with its depth and severity approaching 2015 levels. Myanmar is now estimated to have 7 million more people living in poverty than it did immediately prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.”…
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