UN General Assembly
1990

In the light of this fact, the current Gulf crisis could not have come at a worse time for the majority of non-Oil-producing developing nations. We all know how the disruption of oil production in Gulf countries has affected world oil prices. The effects are felt more sharply by those countries, such as my own, whose fragile economies are least able to cope with them. Developing countries now face the prospect of devoting larger amounts of scarce foreign currency to payment of the correspondingly higher prices of oil imports. Development projects, vital to our future, will consequently be jeopardised through lack of funds. The inevitable rise in inflation rates will surely affect the very fabric of our socio-economic structures. Employment - already an ISSUE of growing concern to the Governments of all developing nations - will be severely affected. Employers, in an effort to stave off the effects o£ escalating inflation, will be forced into staff reductions to maintain profitability.