From mid-2014 Kuwait has experienced a substantial drop in its oil export price and, consequently, government revenue, causing a severe fiscal deficit and impaired economic performance. Cutting energy subsidies has become a policy priority. In the face of widespread opposition, the government raised gasoline prices in August 2016, proclaiming such reform key to solving its […]
Due to the sustained low oil price in international markets and the resulting fiscal stress, GCC countries have begun reforming their energy prices. Some of these reforms are structural, and intended to last beyond the low-oil-price period. However, so far, most GCC countries have not used compensation measures to mitigate the negative impacts on households […]
While the adverse effects of energy price increases following reforms are increasingly well understood for households, the existing literature has largely ignored the effect of subsidy reform on firms. This paper argues that this is a gap in the evidence base that must be addressed, in order to design and deliver reforms more effectively. In […]
Against a backdrop of rapidly growing oil and gas production and exports, the Indonesian government introduced fuel subsidies in the late 1950s to stimulate economic development. However, since the country ceased to be a net exporter of oil in 2004, increasing demand for oil products and political pressure to maintain subsidies has meant that government […]
The political turmoil that has swept across many parts of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) since the beginning of the Arab Spring in December 2010 and the tightening of international sanctions against Iran in 2012 have reignited the recurring debate about energy security and the reliability of MENA as an energy supplier. In […]
This paper, authored by Bassam Fattouh and Laura El-Katiri and published by the United Nations Development Programme, explores the issue of energy subsidies in the Arab World. The authors argue that while energy subsidies may be seen as achieving social objectives (such as expanding energy access and protecting poor households’ incomes); economic objectives (such as […]
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