Coronavirus means cheap oil isn’t good news for energy-hungry Southeast Asia

Oil prices are at the cheapest they have ever been in modern history, but this does not bode well even for Southeast Asia’s energy-hungry economies. In fact, compounded with the rising pressures of the coronavirus pandemic, the new lows seen in global oil prices are likely to hurt government coffers, spark a wave of bankruptcies, and unleash a fresh round of retrenchments across the region, industry observers say. Oil-producing countries like Indonesia and Malaysia are likely to take a big…

from South China Morning Post https://bit.ly/2S377d3