Word: importance
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Many Asian countries, with the exception of Indonesia, China, Malaysia and Brunei, import nearly all their crude. Since they rely almost entirely on export markets to fuel their growth, they remain especially sensitive to the economic well-being of their trading partners. With oil prices rising and the U.S. economy slowing down, traders in the smaller stock markets are looking glum: in Taipei, shares have plummeted 65% from their year-end high, while the Bangkok market has slipped 40% in just two weeks...
While no place is safe from the effects of the water crisis, Egypt, in particular, faces hard times. The country's population of 55 million is growing by 1 million every nine months. Already the people must import 65% of their food, and the situation could grow far worse. The flow of the Nile, Egypt's only major water supply, will be reduced in coming years as upstream neighbors Ethiopia and Sudan divert more of the river's waters. Egypt's only practical course is to brake population growth and reduce the enormous amount of water wasted through inefficient irrigation...
...cents per gal. to more than $2, and food prices rose 300%. In Lima at least three people were killed by police and army troops, who were enforcing a state of emergency invoked two days before the measures were made public. The plan calls for taxes to be raised, import duties to be enforced and controls on currency exchange to be lifted...
...June a "new industrial policy" was added that abolished import quotas and removed bureaucratic red tape, and aims to slash high tariffs over the next five years. The move effectively ended an indulgent era of high tariffs and import quotas, during which duties ranged up to 105% and imports of 1,200 goods were prohibited outright. Still to be tackled is the thorny issue of foreign debt. Since Brazil stopped payments, arrears of $7 billion have accumulated, taxing the patience of creditors...
...greater cause for concern. The country relies more on foreign fuel today than it ever has, importing 49.9% of its total consumption. If prices rise $3 per bbl., as OPEC wants, the total U.S. import bill will be fattened by about $9 billion, to $63 billion a year. And, unlike the Japanese, Americans tended to relax their efforts to conserve fuel once it became cheap again. At this point, economists do not expect a $3 oil hike to stunt economic growth seriously in the U.S., but even a slight shock is painful with the economy as weak...