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Oil Prices May Impact Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) – UN Report
Marwaan Macan-Markar, IPS
BANGKOK – A new mechanism to measure the impact of rising oil prices on Asia’s poor offers a sobering forecast. There is a clear threat to the region’s gains in reducing the numbers living poverty.
Using 18 different indicators, the recently conceived Oil Price Vulnerability Index (OPVI) suggests that countries surveyed have been hit by varying degrees as the price of oil rose from around 22 US dollars per barrel in 2003 to over 80 dollars per barrel in the years since. Last week, oil fetched a record high of 90.07 dollars per barrel, leading to speculation that the 100 dollar mark was a growing possibility.
The most vulnerable countries are those that have ‘’low economic strength, low economic performance and high oil dependency,’’ states a report released Thursday by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which used the OPVI to confirm its region-wide assessment of how the continent’s poor are coping with the rise in fuel prices.
In South Asia, the worst off countries are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. In South-east Asia, the list includes Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines. In the Pacific, they range from the island nations of Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands to Vanuatu.
The moderately vulnerable countries, on the other hand, stretch from Bhutan and India on one end to Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Mongolia. What has saved these countries from being at the bottom of the barrel are the capacities of their respective economies to ‘’absorb oil price shocks, performing better with high or medium gross domestic product and economic growth rates,’’ states the UNDP report, ‘Overcoming Vulnerability to Rising Oil Prices’. ‘’(They also have) a low reliance on oil or being a net exporter of oil.’’
(25 October 2007)
Albania faces deepening energy crisis
Macedonian Radio and Television
The energy situation in Albania is worsening, despite the recent rains and snowfalls. There is no substantial increase of the levels in main accumulations, while the consumption of electric power surged due to low temperatures, triggering prolonged restrictions.
Interruptions in power supply in Tirana and other cities last for up to eight hours a day, while some rural settlements are cut off for 15 hours.
The Albanian Electric Power Corporation Kesh imports 9.6 million Kwh and produces as little as 4.9 million Kwh on a daily basis.
The current consumption reaches 14.6 million Kwh.
The Energy Ministry and Kesh announced further increase of the electricity imports, despite the high price of imported electricity.
(25 October 2007)
Petro Price Hike Sparks Protests
The Himalayan Times
Kathmandu witnessed street protest marches today after the government raised the price of fuel on Wednesday to beat a shortage and reduce losses at the state-run Nepal Oil Corporation, the sole importer of petroleum products in the country.
Student and consumer activists marched on the streets demanding that the government withdrew the price hike. Traffic movement was disturbed at various places of Kathmandu due to the protests.
The Maoists also criticised the price hike. “The government must readjust the prices on the basis of a general consensus and effectively control the commission, corruption and leakage in petroleum products,” the Maoists said in a statement.
The sister organisations of the Nepal Workers and Peasants Party also organised protests in Bhaktapur and Kathmandu in the morning.
(25 October 2007)
Related from Price hike fails to normalize fuel supply in Nepal (People’s Daily Online – China).
