Myanmar Spring Chronicle – December 6 Overview
December 7, 2025
Civil War and Myanmar’s Economy: The Lives of People Struggling in Hardship
Issues such as Myanmar’s economic collapse, rising cost of living, worsening poverty, and widespread hunger receive far less public attention than major political or military events. People tend to be far more absorbed by news of battlefield victories and defeats—towns captured or lost, casualty figures, airstrikes, and offensives. Reports listing the number of soldiers killed, civilians struck by air raids, or territories changing hands dominate the top of daily news feeds.
These battlefield updates naturally stir people’s emotions, but at the same time, another reality unfolds quietly: across the country, under the pressures of civil war, everyone is fighting their own daily battle to survive.
Amid active conflict, resource extraction, forced taxation, and fees imposed on transport routes, as well as tolls on food and consumer goods moving across territories, have become widespread. These are not normal practices of a functioning state—they happen only in a collapsed legal environment where warlords, armed groups, and military units operate with impunity.
Such uncontrolled extraction and arbitrary taxation are driven by the need to finance military operations. And in a war economy, no actor—armed group or individual—can afford to think about future consequences or legal frameworks. Everything becomes subordinated to the immediate need for money to fuel the war.
For civilians, meanwhile, the struggle is for physical survival:
- finding enough food
- securing shelter
- accessing healthcare
- and keeping themselves and their families alive amid violence
Yet even with this day-to-day struggle, millions live without enough food to survive. According to UN estimates, nearly four million people have been displaced, and over half the population now lives below the poverty line—double the pre-2021 rate. Causes include:
- widespread conflict
- the collapse of agriculture, fisheries, and trade
- arbitrary military conscription
- mass migration of working-age people to neighboring countries
Among the worst-affected regions are Rakhine State and Chin State.
Since fighting resumed in Rakhine in late 2023, trade routes have been shut down. In junta-held towns like Sittwe, residents must buy food in rationed quantities at exorbitant prices. In AA-controlled areas such as Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U, and Pauktaw, people rely on food imported from India—again at inflated prices. Many households survive only by begging, unable to maintain even basic human dignity.
Outside of Rakhine, people in Chin, Karenni, northern Shan, Kachin, upper Sagaing, Magway, and Bago regions face both hunger and conflict simultaneously.
Even in major cities like Yangon and Mandalay, hardship is severe. When a simple cup of tea costs several thousand kyats but the daily minimum wage is only 6,800 kyats, the suffering becomes obvious.
The junta’s “anti-smuggling campaign” and border-trade shutdowns have caused sharp shortages in imported goods such as cooking oil, soap, and medicines. The China border trade is barely functioning; local farmers cannot export crops, and essential imports cannot enter.
Rice farmers suffer losses because they cannot export paddy to China, and corn growers face transport restrictions and export barriers. While the price of paddy falls, premium rice varieties like Paw San Mwe continue rising in price. Domestic goods become unstable as imports shrink.
At the same time, the kyat has stayed unusually stable—not because the economy is strong, but because the junta is restricting trade so heavily that foreign exchange demand has collapsed. Meanwhile, domestic food prices continue soaring.
While most of the population struggles, a small percentage of wealthy, well-connected people continue to thrive. In Yangon, Mandalay, and other major cities, nightclubs, luxury restaurants, and bars remain packed.
The war economy has created opportunities for the corrupt:
- officials releasing conscripts in exchange for bribes
- cronies profiting from arms procurement
- powerful actors enriching themselves through illegal resource extraction
For these groups, the civil war has become a business opportunity.
Thus, on one side, millions beg for food; on the other, a handful grow rich with tens of millions of kyats. This stark contrast feels like a grim reflection of the country’s destiny—a tragic imbalance between suffering and exploitation that has defined Myanmar’s wartime reality.