Energy Subsidies

Several thousand protesters rallied in Moldova's capital Sunday to demand that the country's new pro-Western government fully cover citizens' winter heating bills amid a cost-of-living crisis and skyrocketing inflation. The protest was organized by a recently formed group called Movement for the People and supported by members of Moldova's Russia-friendly Shor Party, which holds six seats in the former Soviet republic's 101-seat legislature. Some of the demonstrators who converged on Chisinau called for the resignation of the country's president, chanting Down with Maia Sandu! Others held placards with the faces of some Moldova's leaders and politicians placed next to photographs of large homes and fancy cars. "They have millions. We are dying of hunger, they said. Sandu on Feb. 13 outlined what she claimed was an alleged plot by Moscow to overthrow the government in order to put the nation at the disposal of Russia, and to derail it from its course to one day join the European ...

Fuel prices increased by about 30 per cent across Indonesia on Saturday after the government reduced some of the costly subsidies that have kept inflation in Southeast Asia's largest economy among the world's lowest. Indonesians have been fretting for weeks about a looming increase in the price of subsidised Pertalite RON-90 gasoline sold by Pertamina, the state-owned oil and gas company. Long lines of motorbikes and cars snaked around gas stations as motorists waited for hours to fill up their tanks with cheaper gas before the increase took effect on Saturday. The hike the first in eight years raised the price of gasoline from about 51 cents to 67 cents per litre and diesel fuel from 35 cents to 46 cents. President Joko Widodo said the decision to increase the fuel prices was his last option as the country's energy subsidy had tripled this year to 502 trillion rupiah (USD 34 billion) from its original budget, triggered by rising global prices of oil and gas. The government has

With more than Rs 27 trillion being spent each year on fossil fuel subsidies globally, these subsidies are a concern for the fight against climate change

Reforms to curb wasteful consumption, decreasing global oil prices triggered the trend