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UN warns developing countries face triple shock from energy, El Niño and debt
The UN says oil prices have returned above $100 a barrel, and it warns governments may no longer be able to shield vulnerable people from high costs.
The UN’s development arm has warned that developing countries are facing a “triple shock” from the energy crisis, El Niño and surging borrowing costs, calling for urgent support from the international community, according to Guardian Economics.
Speaking before the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok this week, UNDP administrator Alexander De Croo said developing countries are being pulled in different directions, and the UNDP released a report titled No Time to Recover that highlights risks from compounding crises of energy, climate and debt.
The report says oil prices have moved back above $100 a barrel in recent weeks as hostilities resumed in the Middle East, and it adds that emergency measures have shielded up to 130 million of the world’s poorest people from the full impact of high prices since the Iran war began earlier this year.
The UNDP warned that many of those populations are now at risk because governments are running out of resources to cushion rising costs, and said the crises could push tens if not hundreds of millions back into poverty.