Newspaper Page Text
— Griffin Daily News Monday, December 17,1973
Page 14
Kicking the poor
Not enough attention has been paid to the calamitious effect
of scarcer oil on many of the struggling economies of the third world.
By NEA/London Economist News Service
LONDON - (LENS) - The
rise in the underdeveloped
countries' oil bill will just
about wipe out the whole offi-
thrifty maid ■ ■ maxwell house I ■ u.s. "choice” beef
SUGAR I [COFFEE ftgjgf
i<£ 9QfeCQ T
i'l-jS' BAG HmDbAG II OR WHOLE ■ I
_ | | IN LB
PRICES GOOD MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, .. —
\J *~7 tub ii MAiihAV htrifiißFfi 94 ALL STORES WILL CLOSE AT 6:00 P.M.
QI NONE SOLD G TO T DEALERS ED ' DECEMBER 24, 1973 | CHRISTMAS EVE AND ALL DAY CHRISTMAS. |
ASTOR SLICED - SWIFT'S 10-LBS & UP MW
PEARS 3ssT BUTTERBALL TURKEYS .79‘
APPLESAUCE3=BB- HAMtsM*
FRUIT COCKTAIL ... 3=l" # [||j |R ll
r 4 0®? LIMIT 1 WITH SIO.OO OR MORE ORDER
Ft BRAND BROAD
/r3r ....Yr ab rnirvuiiTFoW W 4$ XF breasted grade "A” W
4/BLUE, WHITE OR Kp
/ARROW IV-59/ a TURKEYS
j£B DSTERGiNT WB/W non basted AE * m
Wl 49-OZ w
<S\ GIANT ■ jTpi I NON BASTED 10 TO 17%-LBS. lb 69{
BOX FRESH ATLANTA DAIRIES REDI-BASTED 18-LBS BUR LB 75$
HfflS EGG NOG sM
79*
DETERGENT (25«! OFF LABEL) tH A Q
84-oz >IX7 w-d bkanu
4 P< iAIUCD r>DT c 118 B r urW TlnF s K ize G I II.S. "CHOICE” BEEF
FLOWER CART SUPREME IKu I lUC Box ■ CENTER CUT
/ tAJPIX > irnruiiP f CHUCK >
f HOSE f " L -■-&! ROAST I
t o s l oo S OA, f
pies I
■>. V Z? APPLE, COCONUT, PEACH O®
THRIFTY MAID AiJf W-D BRAND GOV'T INSPECTED LEAN
CRANBERRY SAUCE 2=49- B 9«o.oiUUt/? GROUND BEEF ~...„88-
IE SUEUR PEAS 3=T" FORK CHOPS ..98-
ALUMINUM FOIL 3 25 0-88< W PICNIC ROAST 78 (
COMET (2i OFF LABEL) - — ~ MILD CURED, HICKORY SMOKED 17TO20LBAVG
CLEANSER 4» 49- HAM"~~..u,89-
harvest fresh
POLEBUNS 29
I 1 l| I J 1V 1 4 k I HARVEST FRESH — _ ® J k M k
celery .... 19-
rovWKz MNM. e J9 o T. 0 .n.«.
FSWHr PIE SHELLS 3s? 1 HM | A kfl
SHERBET 59 c
eial aid effort of the United
States, equal to 25 per cent of
the foreign currency that the
rich world now hands to the
poor. Most of the under
developed countries have
backed the Arab cause politi
cally, yet they are going to be
at least $4 billion a year
poorer in consequence.
Some of them must wonder
what would have happened if
they had supported Israel in
stead. This sudden new strain
on their balance of payments
will stop a great deal of de
velopment in its tracks, as
money that should be going
into technical assistance will
be diverted into the oil pro
ducers' bank accounts. Much
of the world aid program has
been eradicated at a stroke.
If the price of oil doubles in
the next two or three years,
which is more than likely, the
underdeveloped nations will
be twice as badly off.
The setback has come just
when things were looking up
for much of the third world.
The terms of trade have
shifted in favor of the prim
ary-producing nations for the
first time for many years. In
the past year the prices of
commodity exports have out
paced those of manufactured
goods, swelling the exchange
reserves of the developing
world at an unforeseen and
unprecedented rate. The
value of commodity exports
has grown around 30 per cent
this year. The third world has
actually notched up a bal
ance of trade surplus, and its
reserves have almost
doubled in the past two years.
That progress will now be
whittled away.
The 70 per cent rise in oil
prices is putting the bite on
the purses of Arab sym
pathizers in Africa and
Southeast Asia in such away
that Saudi Arabia’s oil minis
ter, Sheikh Ahmed Yamani,
has mentioned a possible
two-tier pricing system to
give the poorer nations oil on
preferential terms. But
nothing has been done so far.
The third world is not a
great consumer of oil. Its im
ports of crude scarcely
amount to one-fifth of what is
used by the industrialized na
tions, but most of it is bought
for essential purposes, and
imports would have been ex
pected to rise with any rise in
gnp. There is little cushion of
luxury consumption, like
central heating, air condi
tioning or motoring for
pleasure that can be reduced
without directly affecting in
dustrial output. India’s extra
oil bill will push import costs
up by nearly 6 per cent, dou
ble what the new prices will
add to Britain’s imports.
Brazil will have to pay out
about $250 million in hard
currency and so even will
Moslem Pakistan $37.5 mil
lion.
The poor nations will have
more reason to resent the
Arabs' tactics when the
recession looming over the
west causes commodity
prices to slump. It is only in
the unprecedented boom of
the past year that commodity
prices have come back to
what they were in the early
1950 s during the Korean war.
Although base metal prices
are still pushing through new
highs daily, a recession in the
industrialized nations would
send them sliding back, rob
bing the third world of the
foreign currency needed to
pay for its oil.
Coming at the end of the
commodity boom, the new oil
prices have widened the eco
nomic gaps between different
countries of the third world.
The 25 least-developed are
falling further behind, hav
ing few exportable com
modities to set against the ex
tra oil costs. Others have
been putting up star perfor
mances: Zambia, Zaire, Chile
and Peru could stand to
make an extra $2.5 billion
this year with the copper
price now over $2,500 a ton,
more than double the
average 1972 price. Malaysia,
with $375 million added on to
its tin and rubber exports,
has pushed its way to near
the top of the development
league, so that the gap bet
ween it and the industrialized
West is closing as it leaves
the other poor nations lag
ging further behind. Brazil,
Cameroon, Colombia and
Ghana have all got more out
of the recent surge in coffee
and cocoa prices than out of
their official aid receipts.
But because no commodity
price will survive a world
recession the primary pro
ducers ought to be the coun
tries that should now be most
strongly lobbying the Arabs.
A high commodity price
without oil to get the stuff
shipped is of no use to the de
veloping world.
The new tycoons of the
third world are, of course, the
oil producers. Nigeria will be
making an extra SBOO million
a year and Indonesia $370
million. Because the two
countries have large popula
tions of 60 million ana 120
million respectively they,
unlike some Middle East pro
ducers, have ready uses for
their new earnings. While
Arab money could go on lying
in European banks, Nigeria
and Indonesia will have the
opportunity to become the
major economic and political
powers of Africa and South
east Asia, with large markets
and money to satisfy them.
These new producers are
unlikely to sympathize with
any Arab plans for a two-tier
system, or let their neighbors
have oil on preferential
terms. Nigeria told Ghana
and other west African coun
tries last week that they
would not only have to wait
their turn in the queue but
pay the full price, black
brothers or not. Indonesia,
which exports much of its
crude to be refined in
Singapore, Thailand and the
Philippines, is increasingly
anxious to use its political
weight in Southeast Asia.
(Copyright (c) 1973 by Economist Newspa
per. Ltd)
News Oriented
Finland, with two-thirds of
its area blanketed by forests,
annually ships more than a
million tons of newsprint
around the world.