United Nations (AP) – Russia’s war with Ukraine threatens the economies of many developing countries, which now face higher food and energy costs and rising financial conditions, the working group warned Wednesday of the United Nations.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has released a report stating that the war will “recharge” food, energy and finance in poor countries struggling to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, change of climate and the lack of adequate access. Funding for economic recovery.
“We are now faced with a complete storm that threatens to destroy the economies of many developing countries,” Guterres said at a news conference. “1.7 billion people, a third of them already living in poverty, are now severely affected by disruptions in food, energy and financial systems, leading to rising poverty and hunger.
Rebecca Greenspan, secretary general of the United Nations Trade and Development Agency, who coordinated the working group, said these people live in 107 countries that have been “severely affected” by at least one dimension of the crisis: increasing food prices, rising energy prices and rising energy prices.
The report says people in these countries struggle to achieve a healthy diet, imports are essential to meet food and energy needs, and “debt burdens and resource constraints limits the government’s ability to cope with global financial conditions ”.
The report states that 69 countries, with a population of 1.2 billion, are facing a “perfect storm” and severely or severely affected by all three crises. This includes 25 countries in Africa, 25 in Asia and the Pacific, and 19 in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, prices were already rising,” but the war made things worse, ”Guterres said.
He said 36 countries depend on more than half of Russia and Ukraine for wheat, including the world’s poorest countries, while wheat and corn prices have risen 30 per cent since the beginning of the year.
Russia is also the world’s largest exporter of natural gas and the second largest exporter of oil, while Russia and neighboring Belarus export approximately 20% of the world’s fertilizers. Guterres said oil prices have risen more than 60% last year, natural gas prices have risen 50% in recent months, and fertilizer prices have doubled.
The working group said the world was “on the brink of a global debt crisis”. Greenspan, who is chairing the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, on Tuesday highlighted Sri Lanka’s debt repayment and said other countries were asking for help.
Guterres said the world could act to resolve the “three-dimensional crisis” and “ease the blow”.
The group calls on countries to ensure the uninterrupted flow of food and fertilizer through open markets, remove export restrictions, and provide surplus quantities and reserves to those in need. Guterres said it would help curb food prices and calm volatility in food markets.
In the field of energy, the working group calls on governments to avoid harvesting, immediately release strategic oil reserves and additional reserves, and reduce the use of grain for biofuels. Guterres called on countries to use the crisis as an opportunity to accelerate the transition to renewable energy.
On finance, the working group launched an “urgent call from the international community to act swiftly and swiftly” to help developing countries avoid another decade of lost economic growth, a “general debt crisis and social and political instability ”.
The working group says international financial institutions should provide immediate funding to countries facing social and economic problems.
He asked the International Monetary Fund to raise the bailout cap, suspend interest rates for two years and explore the possibility of providing more liquidity with “special lending rights or special measures that targeting weak and vulnerable countries “.
Guterres said the upcoming spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank on April 18-24 are an “important time” to resolve many of these problems. He said it is important that their members understand the need to use the money available to alleviate the suffering of people around the world.
The UN chief said political will was paramount, adding that he had asked six leaders – the presidents of Senegal and Indonesia and the prime ministers of Germany, Barbados, Denmark and Bangladesh – to mobilize political leaders to -secure emerging countries in crisis. They need help.
Source: Huffpost
