LOC15:34
12:34 GMT
BRUSSELS, May 17 (KUNA) -- EU High Representative Josep Borrell published in his blog today,
that " the direct effects of the Ukraine war in Asia are expected to be more limited particularly because the price of rice remain stable".
The COVID-19 pandemic had greatly weakened the region's economy and the economic slowdown in Europe and the United States will continue to affect it.
"China should experience a major economic slowdown, due to the resurgence of the pandemic and the strict zero COVID policy", he wrote in his blog and personally distributed the statement to the reporters.
Borrell said that some countries such as Sri Lanka and Pakistan are already destabilized, while in Indonesia, the rise in palm oil prices because of the global shortage of vegetable oil caused by the war has led the country to block its exports.
The exceptional heat waves experienced this spring in the Indian subcontinent, combined with the droughts in Europe and the United States could have a very negative effect on global food security in coming months.
India, the third wheat producer in the world, has already decided to ban wheat exports, wrote the EU foreign policy chief, while the greatest risks are in the sub-Saharan Africa, with the strong demographic growth, climate change, and prolonged droughts in the east of the continent.
With the increased external debt of many African countries in recent years, particularly with China, several sub-Saharan African countries are heavily importing energy and food products, particularly wheat from Russia and Ukraine.
This economic outlook in many emerging and developing countries will have negative social and political consequences and affect the perception of the war on Ukraine, he concluded.(end)
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