“This mindset that everything can be solved through war harms everyone, but above all, it is the poorest segments of the population worldwide who suffer the greatest consequences of these wars,” Brazilian President Lula da Silva reminded in a March 12 press conference, called to announce measures “to prevent the Brazilian population from bearing the cost of a war that is not ours.” To deal with the oil price shock, the government is eliminating federal taxes on diesel, providing subsidies to producers and importers where needed to reduce the price of diesel fuel at the pump, and monitoring for abusive fuel price increases in the marketplace, measures necessary to keep the economy moving, but at a cost to the federal budget.
Such measures are being taken across the nations of the Global South. Egypt, which had raised fuel and gas prices earlier in the week, imposed price caps on bread that is not already subsidized on March 12, in order to mitigate the effects of the surge in fuel costs.
The Foreign and Economic Ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) convened a special (virtual) meeting on March 13 to coordinate their response to the impact of the spreading war in the Middle East on their economies, resulting from the hikes in world oil prices and disruptions of global trade. The ASEAN ministers emphatically called for “an immediate cessation of hostilities,” and the upholding of international law, dialogue and diplomacy. At the same time, they discussed the need for joint efforts to protect the region from the global economic shocks created by the war, including activating regional mechanisms to mitigate the economic fallout, without detailing the specific measures discussed.
