Paris (France) (AFP) – Here are the latest economic events in the Middle East war:
**Oil prices rise**
Oil prices sank and most stocks rose Tuesday, following a Wall Street Journal report that indicated Donald Trump was willing to end the Iran war even if the key Strait of Hormuz remained closed. Market experts did, however, warn that any US ground operation or wider Iranian retaliation could send oil prices to levels not seen since July 2008, when Brent hit almost $150 a barrel. Both main oil contracts fell Tuesday, though West Texas Intermediate and Brent were still sitting well above $100 a barrel.
**Indonesia makes cuts to school meal programme**
Indonesia will make cuts to its free school meals programme from Tuesday as it seeks to set aside billions of dollars to counteract budget pressures brought on by the war and soaring oil prices.
**Trump threatens to destroy key Iran oil hub**
President Donald Trump threatened on Monday to destroy Iran’s oil export hub Kharg Island if a deal to end the war was not reached soon and the Strait of Hormuz did not “immediately” open. The island, located around 30 kilometres (19 miles) off the Iranian mainland, handles roughly 90 percent of Iran’s crude exports, according to a JP Morgan note released in early March. He warned US forces would destroy “all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!).”
**Iranian attack sparks fire on Kuwait oil tanker**
An Iranian attack sparked a fire on a Kuwaiti oil tanker at Dubai Port, state media reported on Tuesday. “The Kuwaiti giant crude oil tanker was subjected to a direct and malicious Iranian attack while in the anchorage area of Dubai Port in the UAE,” official news agency KUNA reported, citing Kuwait’s state-owned oil company. There were no injuries, according to the report, and Dubai authorities later said firefighters had extinguished the blaze.
**Iran parliament body approves Hormuz tolls**
Iranian state media reported Monday that a parliamentary commission had approved plans to impose tolls on vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway vital to oil and gas shipments that have been effectively closed due to the Middle East war. Citing a member of the parliament’s security commission, state TV said the plan involved “financial arrangements and rial toll systems” and “implementing the sovereign role of Iran”, as well as cooperation with Oman on the other side of the Strait.
**Dubai announces financial aid**
Dubai will provide support worth over $270 million to help businesses and families, authorities announced Monday, as Gulf states face economic disruption from Iran’s aerial attacks and partial closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
**Panama Canal sees traffic increase**
The war in the Middle East has prompted a surge in ships utilizing the Panama Canal, an executive for the waterway said Monday. “We had expected around 34 daily passages” for this year, but in the last two weeks “we’ve been having 38, 39, 40,” the deputy administrator of the canal, Ilya Espino de Marotta, told Telemetro in an interview.
**Haifa refinery fire**
A large blaze ignited at Israel’s Haifa oil refinery after it was hit by debris from the interception of a projectile on Monday. Television channels showed black smoke billowing into the sky from the site, while the fire service shared photos of a tank on fire, shortly after the Israeli military said it had detected new missiles from Iran.
**Sri Lanka raises electricity prices 40%**
Sri Lanka announced a nearly 40 percent increase in electricity prices from Wednesday as it battles an energy shortage caused by the war in the Middle East. Sri Lanka has raised fuel prices three times this month, increasing them by more than a third, and has imposed a four-day working week in a bid to save energy.
**Norway cuts fuel taxes**
Norway will temporarily cut its taxes on petrol and diesel to counter rising prices as the Middle East war disrupts global energy supplies, the government said.
**G7 pledges ‘necessary measures’**
G7 economy and finance ministers said Monday that they stood ready to take “all necessary measures” to ensure the stability of the energy market as they tackled the economic consequences of war in the Middle East.
**Bangladesh orders energy saving**
Bangladesh has ordered civil servants to switch off lights and turn down air conditioning to save power as the Middle East war worsens an energy crunch, officials said.
**Gulf energy targets**
Kuwait said an Iranian attack on a desalination and electricity plant killed one worker and damaged a building as Tehran pressed its aerial campaign against its Gulf neighbours.
**Iranian grid ‘stable’**
Iran has restored electricity in parts of Tehran and nearby areas after strikes damaged power grids and briefly disrupted supply, deputy energy minister Mostafa Rajabi-Mashhadi told state television.
© 2024 AFP
