June 17, 2022
I can’t take the price of gasoline anymore. It is not worth driving up and down to business. It is simply too high. The cost of food is even more vital as $50 US used to get you at least two grocery bags full of items and now it is barely filling a bag.
The Ukraine/Russia war is not behind all of it, but it sure is making things extra hard for us all.
ECLAC in their report says that things can continue to get even hard for all of us on this side of the world who have no business with anyone in Russia or the Ukraine. Wheat prices have been affected, with both countries being in the top five exporters of wheat. Of course we need wheat for various food items and if both of their export systems as blocked up or stalled due to the war, then what are we to do?
Russia is also a major exporter of oil and natural gas, much of which Europe is a key buyer. Europe still has a lot of money. I’m thinking what if it gets so bad that European countries have to cut back on development aid for small, developing states in the Caribbean and Central America? A lot of the things many of us depend on may slowly grind to a halt.
To go even further, imagine the International Monetary Fund not having enough capital to fund the level of programmes they do around the world, or the World Bank has to drop their efforts in Haiti, just imagine where we would be? The ripple effect is starling.
The ECLAC report also said that access to financing would be a challenge for developing countries, so we could see a repeat of 2008 where money just seized up overnight. Scary things.
But none of these things have happened yet, but never say never. We must continue to pray for a solution to the conflict.