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South Asia News

Fuel price hikes and rice shortages are adding to the hardship in Myanmar – AFR


Dozens of people queue under the drizzle of the monsoon in Myanmar’s commercial hub of Yangon to buy subsidized cooking oil, waiting for one of the many commodities that have become scarce as economic misery ravages the city.

The country’s economy collapsed after a military coup last year and was further rocked by the junta’s attempts to seize foreign exchange and unpredictable rules on business and imports.

Living standards are being squeezed by global commodity price spikes triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, leaving many struggling to make ends meet and relying on subsidies or charity to buy food to bring the table.

“People can’t spend much of their income on food due to higher commodity prices,” said 55-year-old housewife Khin Khin Than while waiting to fill her plastic bottle with oil sold by a local association.

The market price for about 1.6 kilograms of oil has risen from 5,000 kyats to 9,000 kyats ($4.25), she said.

“If only one person works, a family doesn’t have much money left for groceries.”

In July, the World Bank said about 40 percent of the population lived below the national poverty line.

CPI inflation hit 17.3 percent year-on-year in March, she added.

The price of rice has also skyrocketed as transportation costs have risen and the military and anti-junta militants are turning much of the country into battlefields.

Even the state-sponsored Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reports almost daily on the rising costs of rice, eggs, vegetables, bus travel and rent.

Last week, the price of a liter of diesel rose by around six US cents overnight to a high of 2,440 kyat (US$1.15) per liter, according to state media.

The day before last year’s coup, customers in Yangon paid 695 kyat at the Yangon gas pump, according to industry sources.

This week the junta announced it had formed a steering committee to buy fuel from ally Russia, but gave no details on when or how that would begin.

Many people rely on charity to make ends meet.

“When we cook at home there is no electricity, rice is expensive to buy,” said Lay Lay, 68, one of hundreds lining up at a monastery for a free meal of curry and rice.

“Cooking costs are too high for someone who is retired.”

Ashin Ottamasiri, who oversees the distribution, said his monastery hands out vouchers to 500 people every day for food the monks cook with ingredients donated to them.

“But some days it’s more than 600 people,” he said. “When we run out of rice and curry, we give cakes, snacks and fruit.”

“I can’t shelter many people, but I can share food so people eat like me.”

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