Africa-Press – Eswatini. The fuel shortage which is experienced by the country might worsen the already weak economy.
Economists have pointed out that the country’s economy is not in a healthy position hence the shortage might exacerbate the situation.
Independent Consultant, Economist and Risk Management Specialist, Thembinkosi Dube has advised consumers to find alternative means of getting to work amidst the fuel shortages.
The fuel shortage which is now in its fourth week became worse two weeks ago and only motorists using diesel were spared.
The latest fuel shortage hit the country hours after government had officially announced another fuel price decrease on December 22.
Dube said consumers needed to understand that fuel was the engine which drives the economy.
He said the fuel shortage had a number of effects with the obvious one being that people would not be able to travel.
“They will not be able to get to their work places, including business locations. This will affect business activity, making it sluggish,” he said.
He explained that as the country’s economy was not in a healthy position, this might add to the already weak economy.
“If people cannot go to work, there is less production which has a spill over on gross domestic product (GDP) or even losing some orders as factories would not be in a position to honour them,” said Dube.
He further advised the public that those who could work from home should get their equipment ready and those who cannot must try and use more fuel efficient cars.
“They may also share their cars, for instance, if you work in Mbabane and stay in Manzini, share.
Also using public transport can help, but we can say that COVID-19 has taught us that we can work remotely, we can revisit those strategies,” said Dube.
Shortage
He further stated that fuel shortage would hurt and further deplete the country’s business confidence.
The economist said it was about time the country considered working on its fuel reserves.
“Countries like the US have crude oil stocks, this is where they keep their stock, they weekly release these figures to show how much they have,” he said.
He explained that this helped in bringing business confidence by ensuring that business would continue as normal. He, however, said what was happening in the country would continue to erode the little confidence that businesses had.
“Business confidence is gone in this country and this is a major setback to increased production,” he stated.
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