No. 6 KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE Series July 2006 How are Developing Countries Coping with Higher Oil Prices? by Robert Bacon and Masami Kojima 37488 This note is based on a forthcoming report by ESMAP. The report covers policy alternatives adopted by developing country governments in response to the increases in world oil prices since the end of 2003. The report analyzes what factors have affected the responses and what policy prices have been used by governments to mitigate the effects of higher oil prices on consumers, the government budget, and the total demand for oil. The Oil Price Shock Oil prices have shown an almost steady rise since the end of 2003, with the April 2006 price being more than double that in January 2004. Faced with a large increase in the price of a commodity that affects household expenditures, governments have evolved a number of different strategies for coping. At including direct subsidies to users (possibly targeted to certain the core of the policy response is the decision about which fuels or consumer groups), indirect subsidies through the group in society should bear the immediate consequences of reduction of taxes on petroleum products, and targeted income the higher prices--users, taxpayers, or businesses in the oil subsidies. The second group of price-related policies are largely supply chain. This note reviews the responses of 38 related to attempts to make the domestic markets more developing countries to higher fuel prices since January 2004 competitive so that cost reductions will be passed on to and illustrates the range of policies adopted and some of the consumers, and tend to have a long gestation period. consequences of their implementation. Quantity-based policies focus on placing restrictions on Policy Options for Coping with Higher Oil Prices activities that require the consumption of oil products. These activities are principally vehicle travel and the use of electricity Price-based policies determine the extent to which various when the power system uses petroleum products for generation. groups in society bear the cost of the higher prices and reflect Policies can be either mandatory or exhortatory. a mixture of three broad strategies: Pass the full price increase on a given product onto final Reliance on oil can also be reduced by energy efficiency users. improvement and diversification into non-petroleum sources of Pass on only a part (or none) of the price increase and energy. The most common alternatives are natural gas and either finance the subsidy or tax reduction involved renewable sources of electricity such as hydro and geothermal. through the budget, or reduce the profits of oil Biofuels are attracting growing attention as substitutes for liquid companies. transportation fuels. For net oil importing countries, a related Adjust prices in such a way that companies supplying policy is the encouragement of domestic oil production. the petroleum products receive a lower margin for each unit sold. ESMAP is a multi-donor trust fund managed by the World Bank Energy and Water Department (EWD) that promotes the role of Price-based policies entail mainly provision of subsidies and energy in poverty reduction and economic growth in an environ- mentally responsible manner. Its work applies to low-income, measures to reduce the domestic costs of supply of products. emerging and transition economies and contributes to the Subsidies are provided by a number of different mechanisms, achievement of internationally agreed development goals. ESMAP Knowledge Exchange Series No. 6 1 KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE Series July 2006 Governments that wish to introduce unpopular policies, such Policies That Have Been Implemented as eliminating subsidies on petroleum products because of their high fiscal burden, have faced opposition to these Ten questions summarize key policy responses adopted policies from civil society. Policies that are transparent in 1 during 2004­2006 (Table 2). motivation, formulation, and implementation are more likely to be accepted than those that are not. (1) For countries with deregulated prices or an automatic pricing formula that follows international prices, has the Degree of Price Increase Pass-Through government suspended its pricing policy so as not to pass higher world prices fully to consumers? A key measure of countries' response to higher oil prices is (2) Has the government lowered taxes or fees levied on the extent to which these are passed on to consumers. Table petroleum products to lower end-user prices? 1 compares the pass-through coefficients (measured as the (3) Has the government financed fuel price subsidies ratio of the increase in the retail price to the increase in the explicitly from the budget? international price, both measured in local currency) for the (4) Is there an oil product price stabilization fund that is period January 2004 to April 2006 for gasoline and for either functioning presently, or has been depleted and diesel. The mean of the coefficients for the 31 developing is not presently functioning, or has been proposed by countries for which the data were available is compared to the government? the coefficients for a sample of industrial countries. The (5) Aside from the measures in (1) and (2), has the table indicates that, with the exception of Japan and the government used its influence in other ways in an United States (gasoline only), industrial countries passed attempt to lower end-user prices? Examples from the through more of the price increase to users. Indeed, one- 38 countries studied include threatening to withdraw third of the developing countries passed through less than licenses for increasing prices, calling upon the public to 90 percent of the international price increase for gasoline, boycott firms that raise prices, requiring that and more than one-half passed through less than 90 justification be provided for every price increase, and percent for diesel. forcing the oil companies to absorb losses from Table 1 Pass-Through Coefficients for Selected Industrial under-pricing of fuels. and Developing Countries (January 2004­April 2006)a (6) Have prices to certain consumers been set lower than for others for the same fuel? Targeted consumers might Country Gasoline pass-through Diesel pass-through include farmers, fishermen, public transport operators, Germany 1.20 0.98 Japan 0.85 0.65 power producers, and households, and the sale of United Kingdom 1.25 1.08 smaller LPG cylinders at lower prices on a unit weight United States 1.02 1.05 Mean of case studies 1.03 0.88 basis. Mean for net oil importers (25 countries) 1.19 1.01 (7) Have mandatory conservation measures been Mean for net oil exporters (6 countries) 0.35 0.32 announced or implemented, or have financial a For some developing countries, price information was not available during the specified period. See the full report for details. incentives been given for improving energy efficiency? (8) Has the government introduced a cash transfer or any other compensation mechanism that targets the poor Statistical analysis examining various macroeconomic and specifically in response to higher oil prices? other factors that could affect the degree of pass-through (9) Has refined product or electricity rationing or shortage showed that the major contributing factor was whether a occurred? country is a net oil exporter. For both fuels net exporters (10) Has the government implemented or actively promoted passed through much less of the international price increase. switching to alternative sources of energy to reduce In addition, the analysis showed that for diesel the degree of dependence on oil? pass-through was greater in countries with either a higher ratio of debt to gross domestic product (GDP) or improving 1 The question regarding government sponsored information cam- terms of trade. paigns for raising public awareness on fuel policies was not readily available in each country and therefore is not included in the table. Two examples of successful campaigns are discussed in the following section. ESMAP Knowledge Exchange Series No. 6 2 Table 2 Summary of Responses to Higher Oil Prices in 2004-2006 Question Non-oil Non-oil Net oil Net oil Net oil All producers producer importers expor er exporters countries Index for Table 2 No. of countries responding "Yes" The responses were analyzed for three (1) Suspend pricing policya 5 6 3 14 categories of countries: non-oil producers (16 (2) Taxes adjusted 10 10 6 7 23 countries in total), oil producers that are net oil (3) Budget financing fuel 4 7 9 20 importers (13), and net oil exporters (9). subsidies The countries per category are: (4) Stabilization fund 5 2 2 9 (5) Government influence used 3 7 2 12 Non-oil produceres: Cambodia, Ethiopia, to lower prices Honduras, Kenya, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Madagascar, Malawi, Morocco, (6) Lower prices to certain 5 5 7 17 Mozambique, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Senegal, consumers Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. (7) Mandatory conservation 4 6 2 12 measures or financial incentives Net oil importers: Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, (8) Cash transfer or other 1 5 1 7 Ghana, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, the Kyrgyz measures to compensate Republic, Pakistan, People's Republic of China, Thailand, and Tunisia (9) Oil product or electricity 11 11 8 7 26 rationing or shortage Net oil exporters: Arab Republic of Egypt, Ar- (10) Fuel switching 11 11 11 6 28 gentina, Cameroon, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, República Bolivariana de All countries 16 13 9 38 Venezuela, and Vietnam aTwelve countries out of 38 did not have market-based pricing. Outcomes Petroleum product and electricity shortages have been Fourteen countries in the sample have suspended market- common, occurring in nearly two-thirds of the countries. based pricing for some, if not all, fuels. More than one-half Ironically, those most likely to experience energy shortages have reduced taxes to lower end-user prices. The are net oil exporters, suggesting a high indirect cost of fuel percentage of those that have resorted to tax reduction is price subsidies. In nearly two-thirds of the countries that have disproportionately high among net oil exporters. Half the experienced shortages, the government has suspended governments have financed fuel subsidies from the budget, market-based pricing, financed price subsidies from the and the tendency to do so increases with increasing budget, or both. contribution of domestic oil to meeting domestic demand. Among net oil exporters, all have used the budget to Three quarters of the governments are promoting fuel subsidize fuel prices. Only five countries have effectively switching to alternative fuels or are proposing to do so. functioning price stabilization funds. Twenty-three countries are engaged in or planning to start biofuel production. About 45 percent of the countries have price discrimination based on consumer categories. Among net exporters, four- Some governments have been more successful than others in fifths offered price discounts to certain consumer classes. implementing policies that reduce price subsidies and Mandatory conservation measures or financial incentives for encourage energy conservation. Useful lessons can be gleaned conservation have been implemented or announced in from their experience. one-third of the countries. Not surprisingly, the lowest The government of Ghana used information percentage was among net oil exporters but somewhat dissemination and awareness-raising effectively in surprisingly, the percentage was not much higher among February 2005 to win--despite opposition from trade non-oil producers. unions--the public opinion over to their policy of eliminating fuel price subsidies entirely, coupled with Only a handful of countries established compensation compensation schemes that target the poor. In engaging mechanisms specifically in response to recent oil price the public, the government made extensive use of the increases. Indonesia, Chile, and China introduced cash findings of the poverty and social impact assessment of transfer schemes targeting the poor. subsidy elimination conducted with a wide range of stakeholders in 2004. ESMAP Knowledge Exchange Series No. 6 3 In 2005 in Indonesia--which has a history of violent protests simple or universal strategy for dealing with higher oil prices. A against fuel price increases--the government raised prices by package of measures is needed to help the government and the 29 percent in March and by another 114 percent in October. public deal with higher oil prices effectively. In particular, the very The public acceptance of these very large price increases was low short-run price elasticities of demand imply that even helped by the credibility of the newly elected government and allowing prices to rise to international levels will not result in a by the government's decision to redirect the savings from the substantial fall in demand. subsidy reduction to rapidly put in place a cash transfer program for the poor. The government conducted nation-wide In the medium to long term, experience with price subsidies information campaigns to inform the public about this offers guidance. Subsidies are often justified in the name of compensation mechanism, which more than compensated the protecting the poor. However, traditional fuel subsidies have been poor for the price increases. The government has also found to have large leakages, resulting in low cost-effectiveness. conducted ongoing assessments of the implementation of the Household surveys have confirmed that the lowest-income groups cash transfer program and addressed the problems often receive the smallest share of the benefits of the subsidies, identified. The government has made important steps toward even though their removal will have sizeable impact on them. moving from universal price subsidies to targeted assistance. Governments are well advised to move away from price subsidies The government of the Philippines has mounted a very active and turn to targeted assistance. To do so, governments need to energy conservation campaign, beginning with government identify poor households and develop a delivery mechanism for ministries and agencies, thereby setting an example. Although income transfer and other types of compensation that better attribution is difficult, this large effort by the government, target low-income households. together with other factors (including full pass-through of world market price increases), has helped to reduce fuel With the risk that oil prices could rise further still, inaction by consumption, achieving an eight percent reduction during the governments could prove very expensive. Countries should be first 11 months of 2005 compared to a year earlier. pursuing a full range of policies to reduce oil dependence and The government of Chile has maintained a prudent fiscal policy not allow the cost of subsidies to threaten budget stability. despite rising world prices of copper, Chile's major export commodity, and used a portion of the windfall income to References subsidize fuel prices in times of very high world oil prices. The World Bank. Forthcoming. "Coping with Higher Oil Prices." ESMAP government has also used cash transfer to compensate the Report. Washington, DC. poor for higher oil prices. General Observations on Policy Responses Given the diverse circumstances in which developing countries find themselves--different income levels, budgetary situation, amounts spent on price subsidies, availability of indigenous petroleum resources, fuels used for electricity production, and the impact of weather on hydropower, to mention a few--there is no Copyright 2006 Production Team: Marjorie K. Araya, Douglas F. Barnes, and Samantha M. Constant Robert Bacon was the former manager of the Oil and Gas Policy Division at the World Bank. Masami Kojima works as Lead Energy Specialist for the World Bank's Energy and MiningAnchor. This note was reviewed by Ms. Dominique Lallement, EnergyAdviser, World Bank. To order copies of the full publication and for more information, please visit us at our website: http://www.esmap.org. The Knowledge Exchange Series is issued by ESMAP to disseminate the results of significant work in the energy sector for the benefit of the development community in the most effective and most accessible way possible. This brochure is printed on recycled paper. http://www.esmap.org