From New Delhi to Bangkok, governments are bracing for a new wave of inflation driven by disruptions in the world’s most important energy corridor, the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively shut by Iran in retaliation for American and Israeli attacks. Across a number of Asian countries, officials have closed schools, told workers to stay home, and asked people to adopt other fuel-saving measures as they anticipate surging oil prices to push up the prices of nearly everything from food to transport to electricity.
“The conflict threatens to trigger a new wave of cost-of-living pressures that embattled governments and central banks around the world will struggle to deal with, especially coming from the supply-side,” Heron Lim, a lecturer of economics with ESSEC Business School, tells TIME.