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Oil prices hit hard on Asia’s poor
UNDP report ranks countries according to a new Oil Price Vulnerability Index
Bangkok – Soaring oil prices are threatening the prospects of millions of the region’s poor and forcing them further into poverty, says a report issued here today by the UN Development Programme (UNDP). As oil prices climb, the impact on the poor may presage worse to come warns the publication, Overcoming Vulnerability to Rising Oil Prices: Options for Asia and the Pacific.
“Oil Prices have tripled over the last four years. Today the price is approaching $90 a barrel. This has meant that the Asia and Pacific region has had to pay an additional bill of almost $400 billion for imports compared to the amount spent in 2003. This is 20 times the annual aid flow to the region,” said Hafiz Pasha, UNDP Regional Director for Asia and Pacific, at the launch of the report in Bangkok. “It has become a real issue for an otherwise fast-growing region to absorb this staggeringly large bill,” said Mr. Pasha.
An alternative perspective was presented by H.E. Piyasvasti Amranand, Minister for Energy, Royal Government of Thailand at the launch. “This time around, the price of oil has gone up so much that we are seeing renewable technologies developing and materializing. These new technologies will be beneficial to everyone,” he said.
Interviews conducted for the report among poor rural and urban households in China, India, Indonesia and Lao PDR reveal that rising oil prices are starting to put a brake on human development and in some cases, shifting it into reverse. Between 2002-5, the households interviewed suffered dramatic price increases – paying on average 74 perce ...