Energy: EU policy plunges Pakistan into darkness

The pricing system in force until now allows a household consuming less than 30 kilowatts per month to benefit from a flat rate of 54.27 rupees (0.15 dollars), which the CEB now wants to raise to 507.65 rupees ($1.44).

For Janaka Ratnayake, Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), “the majority of consumers will not be able to cope with such an increase”. “This is why we are proposing a direct subsidy from the Treasury to reduce by more than half the increase demanded” by the CEB, he explained to the press in Colombo.

The government has not yet decided on the tariffs applied to individuals but those for trade and industry will increase by 43 to 61%, he said. The CEB will also be able to rely on the contribution of users who hold dollars, such as exporting companies, in order to finance the import of oil and spare parts.

Negotiations to buy Russian or Qatari oil

Since the beginning of the year, diesel prices have more than quadrupled and those of gasoline more than doubled in Sri Lanka, where these two fuels are in short supply. The Minister of Energy, Kanchana Wijesekera, said he could not give a timetable for the next deliveries in a country entirely dependent on foreign countries for its oil supply.

The minister, after apologizing to motorists on Sunday, announced that two of his colleagues were on their way to Moscow to negotiate lower fuel prices. Kanchana Wijesekera himself went to Qatar to also negotiate a drop in the prices of hydrocarbons supplied to Sri Lanka.

Default of payment

Unable to repay the approximately $51 billion it owes in foreign debt, Sri Lanka invoked the default in April to begin negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The UN has already called for an emergency fund of 47 million dollars for the most vulnerable of the 22 million inhabitants. Nearly 1.7 million people are in need of “life-saving assistance”, according to the UN, with four in five people reducing their food consumption due to severe shortages and soaring prices. Last week, the energy crisis prompted the government to close non-essential administrations and schools for two weeks to reduce travel. Several hospitals have reported high absenteeism of their medical staff due to fuel shortages. And the difficulties are not over, warned the Prime Minister.

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Record for Zimbabwe: the main interest rate raised to 200%

The central bank of Zimbabwe announced Monday to raise its main interest rate to 200%, the highest rate in the world for this southern African country struggling with galloping inflation. The monetary authority explained in a press release that it had more than doubled the rate in an attempt to contain inflation further aggravated by the war in Ukraine, expressing its “great concern”. Annual inflation more than doubled in two months to reach 191% in June, fueling fears of a return to hyperinflation that has ruined the country’s economy. The rate was last raised to 80% in April, set at 60% previously.

Developing countries: Westerners want to counter China by investing massively in infrastructure

(With AFP)