What do higher commodity prices mean for the Arab world?

The rapid rise in global commodity prices over the past two months has raised fresh fears over food inflation in most Arab countries. But we think that the bigger concern could be the balance of payments positions of some of the resource-poor Arab countries. For the oil-rich economies, the increase in agricultural prices is offset by higher hydrocarbon prices. But for the resource-poor countries, a pick-up in both crude oil and agricultural prices is a double whammy. In this Watch, we look at the likely casualties from the recent increases in global commodity prices.