SINGAPORE šC Governments in Asia, the world's top oil importing region, are scrambling to find alternatives and insulate their economies from the worst of the energy crisis triggered by the U.S. and Israel's war on Iran, but the pain is getting increasingly costly.
The disruption has spurred the Asian Development Bank to cut its growth forecast for developing Asia and the Pacific to 4.7% this year and 4.8% in 2027, down from 5.1% for both years previously, and lift its inflation outlook to 5.2% for this year.
Overall oil imports to Asia, which takes 85% of Gulf crude shipments, plunged 30% in April on the year to their lowest since October 2015, Kpler data shows, after two months of the near-closure of the Strait of ?Hormuz, a ?key choke point for a fifth of global oil and gas supplies.
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