World Bank: Rising prices more pressing problem for East Asia than financial turmoil

12:40 a.m. April 1, 2008

SINGAPORE – East Asian nations must act promptly to ease the burden of mounting food and fuel prices on the region's poor, the World Bank said Tuesday. Inflation poses a greater challenge to the region's economies than the current financial turmoil, it said.
In its half-yearly update on the region's outlook, the bank said growth in developing East Asian economies could slip by 1 to 2 percentage points this year to 8.5 percent as the U.S. credit crisis unfolds, damping demand for exports.

But it warned that food and fuel prices that have soared in recent years are a more pressing problem for governments to tackle. Since 2003, oil and many other commodity prices have more than tripled and doubled, respectively.

“While the subprime crisis will have its impacts – possibly on some countries more than others – the more immediate concern is that in virtually every East Asian country, inflation is climbing to uncomfortable levels,â€