Under-pricing of diesel and kerosene continues to cause major financial problems for Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), which is losing over Tk 2 billion monthly. Global forecasts suggest that oil prices will continue to be over $US 50 per barrel for the next couple of years. Bangladesh's...

For some Latin American countries - especially, the oil importers in the Caribbean - rising energy prices could pose a significant threat to their current account sustainability, particularly if they are accompanied by other negative shocks. In some countries the fiscal costs associated with...

The decline in international oil prices over the past two years has resulted into an economic crisis in the Republic of Congo that could forestall the transformation efforts to move the country towards higher middle income status. A key strategy that government has pursued in recent years has...

"Indonesia's oil revenues and fuel subsidies dominate the nation's economic policy agenda. This paper estimates the impact of higher international oil prices on the Indonesian government's fiscal position in 2008 and beyond. It analyzes the interactions between government revenues and...

Despite the recent slowdown, the underlying growth of the global economy remains solid. After a 4 percent growth in 2010, Russia's real output is expected to grow 4.4 percent in 2011, increasingly driven by domestic demand. Russia's households have absorbed the food price shock thanks to a...

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the channels through which rising commodity prices might affect countries in the Europe and Central Asia Region (ECA) in the short run and to indicate which countries are most likely to be significantly affected. This paper discusses the effects of the...