�Says: 'cutback wherever possible'
PHILIPSBURG--Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications Franklin Meyers says government is closely monitoring the situation in the Middle East and North Africa and the impact and influence that it will have on the world's economy in general and St. Maarten in particular.
Global oil prices have already spiked due to the situation in Libya. "Any spike in oil prices will cause ripple effects on our economic wellbeing and aggravate the already high cost of living on the island, Meyers said in the press release.
The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) is also following the unrest with interest because Libya had promised the organisation's members million of dollars in investments.
Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Baldwin Spencer said the unrest has serious implications for the Caribbean. "We are still very much dependent on oil from the Middle East."
Meyers said residents should already start looking at ways and means to conserve energy by limiting unnecessary driving and/or by making use of car pooling and conserve energy at home.
The minister suggested that residents visit the website of utilities company GEBE for energy usage and conservation tips.
Jamaica state owned oil refinery Petrojam announced this week that Jamaican motorists will have to pay almost two Jamaican dollars more for a litre of gasoline. This is the fourth straight week of increases in the prices of gasoline in Jamaica.
This week, oil rallied more than US $100 a barrel in New York for the first time since October 2008, as Libya's uprising threatened to stop exports. Libya is Africa's third-biggest crude supplier. There is global concern that surging fuel prices will impact the global economic recovery.
Food prices around the world surged to a new historic peak in January, for the seventh consecutive month, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), adding that the prices are not likely to decline in the months ahead.
The latest Food Price Index, a commodity basket that tracks monthly changes in global food prices, averaged 231 points in January and was up 3.4 per cent from December last year, the highest level since the agency started measuring food prices in 1990.
According to FAO, the upward pressure on world food prices is not abating and is a major concern especially for low-income food deficit countries that may face problems in financing food imports and for poor households which spend a large share of their income on food.
"Government will carry out the necessary price controls and do whatever is in its power to minimise any adverse effects the ongoing unrest in the Middle East and North Africa will indirectly have on our economy," Meyers said.
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