Basic food prices have moved far out of reach: premium rice prices rose nearly fourfold from Jan 2021 to late 2025, while low-quality rice, relied on by poor households, more than doubled. As savings lost value and people no longer dared to take risks in business, many rushed to buy gold to secure their savings. The MMK did not stabilize or appreciate during the sham election period, but gold prices surged by roughly 800% since Dec 2020, reaching an all-time high of 10.2 million MMK per tical shortly after the second phase of the sham election. The junta has intensified extraction to fund the war. While people face shortages of food and medicine, the junta has squeezed revenue, especially through taxation from migrant workers, collecting over MMK 1 trillion in FY 2024–2025 alone, and violating existing double taxation agreements. 76 At the same time, import crackdowns, electricity shortages, and ongoing conflict have crippled domestic production, while the junta continues to spend shrinking USD reserves on weapons and jet fuel used in attacks on civilians. In the 2024 fiscal year, the junta’s military expenditures reached an all-time high of MMK 5 billion (USD 2.7 billion, based on the 2024 exchange rate), which was a quarter of the total budget allocation. 77 The direction after the sham election is clear: more resource extraction, more militarized spending, and deeper economic decline. There will be no recovery under a regime that treats the economy as a war chest and the population as a source of cash. 76 77 Myanmar Now (7 Nov 2025) Myanmar regime’s tax revenue surges by a third, largely on the backs of migrant workers RFA (25 Mar 2025) Junta chief vows to hike defense budget, seeking to expand global presence 15