The sad reality is that fuel was expected to be adjusted as it continues to rise on the world market due to the Ukraine war.
The escalating war in Ukraine continues to affect the price of fuel and other commodities on the world market. Since the war started in March, the prices of gas globaly have not been stable due to reduced supply of the commodity from Russia which is one of the leading fuel producers and supplier in the world.
These problem of soaring prices of fuel has not spared any country and Malawi has not been exceptional. To understand the gravity of the situation on the global stage, the United Sates which all countries look up to as one of the robust economies in the world has been experiencing severe strains of the Ukraine war as it is also struggling to contain the escalating prices of fuel.
Recently the US President Joe Biden complained that the Russian scaling up of its invasion on Ukraine has greatly affected the price of gas in his country.
Writing on his Facebook page: “The price of gas is up by almost $2 a gallon since Putin accelerated his military build-up, and those high prices pose a challenge for working families.”
South Africa is seen as one of the fastest growing economies in Africa but the rainbow nation is also reeling from the same economic meltdown and they have had to grapple with the rising prices of fuel almost monthly since the war broke out in Ukraine.
As reported by SABC on May 31 when they adjusted the fuel prices, South African Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Monthashe attributed the fuel hike to the market international forces heightened by the on-going war in Ukraine which has affected the supply chain in the world including South Africa.
As the saying goes what affect one affects all, current global economic crisis has not spared Malawi too. While government has tried to mitigate impact of the economic shock, Malawi as part of the global community has no control over other price mechanism. It came as no surprise therefore to hear yesterday the announcement from the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (MERA) that they have increased the price of fuel with effect from today, Wednesday 23 June.
While the outcries on the fuel adjustment are genuine and justified, there is a need to understand the context of the situation we are in.
The war in Ukraine will continue to wreak havoc to the world economies if the war does not come to an end soon. This is the reason the Swiss President Ignazio Cassis and his Ukraine counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking during the opening of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, recently echoed each other’s sentiments calling world leaders gathered at the forum to quickly find a lasting solution to the Ukraine crisis to prevent the current world economic that is slowly escalating a global recession