Arab countries waste billions on oil subsidies: UN report

Arab countries waste billions on oil subsidies: UN report
By Agence France-Presse
Wednesday, April 18, 2012 15:48 EDT -- The Raw Story


The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has issued a report that claims some Arab countries are actually subsidizing oil and energy to keep prices of gas down for the populations.

AND, they will not roll them back for fear of a political backlash (of all things !)

The governments say it protects the poor from high prices, but some facts say the rich benefit more.
(surprise !)

Arab countries are wasting tens of billions of dollars on subsidies for petrol and energy but dare not roll them back for fear of a political backlash, a UN report said.

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) report this week said six of the world’s 10 biggest subsidizers are in the Arab world, led by Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. People in the three countries pay less than a third of world prices for car fuel and electricity.

The annual cost for Saudi Arabia is more than $43 billion, $4.15 billion for Qatar, $10.59 billion for Algeria, the report said quoting International Energy Agency figures.

In Egypt, the top 20 percent wage earners get 33 percent of the energy subsidies, against 3.8 percent for the poorest families. For gasoline, 93 percent of the subsidies go to the rich.

The subsidies also distort the economy by encouraging waste and holding up investment in renewable energy, the report said. Energy consumption in the Arab world tripled between 1980 and 2008.

UN researchers said the money could be better spent on infrastructure and social spending.

I wonder how much of a carbon footprint was left by the people at the U.N. who "talked" through the report ?

Better yet, how about the money it took to assemble the "facts" ?

Maybe the report cost could have been put to better use.

Like maybe education and infrastructure for Palestine !!


See, oil subsidies DO lower gas prices !!

I understand why they subsidize prices for their populace. Market prices are for us gas guzzler countries so the oil countries can make profits. We subsidize our sugar producers despite cheaper sugar available on the free market. We give our oil companies subsidies and tax breaks and they make record profits and don't give us any break on prices. Most of the people in oil countries have lower standards of living and cheaper gas is something they really need. Nationalizing a country's resources lets all the populace share in the bounty when they keep the price low at home and high when shipped to other countries. Letting corporations make record profits on our own people is criminal when we give them so many breaks on taxes and royalties. I think national resources should be for the good of the nation, not just corporations!

at the detriment of societies why gloss over the article and suggest america accept policies the m.e. does how unpatriotic.