Iran War Hobbles Myanmar Economy as Gasoline Supplies Disappear
Countries across Asia are limiting consumers’ fuel purchases. Run by a junta and facing civil war, Myanmar is among the hardest hit.
Hundreds of people wait in line for gasoline at a service station in Naypyidaw on March 27.
Photographer: Thomas Cristofoletti for Bloomberg BusinessweekIn Myanmar’s military-controlled capital, Naypyidaw—an isolated city of more than 800,000 where oversize government compounds are separated by almost-empty highways—drivers stand in line for hours waiting for fuel that many won’t get. Each time the queue inches ahead, 36-year-old Phyu Thi wheels her motorbike forward by hand, trying to avoid the worst of the sun as the mercury spikes toward 100F.
For Phyu Thi, who works as a delivery driver, the ordeal has become routine since Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for US and Israeli airstrikes. With official decrees strictly limiting fuel purchases, she has to repeat it two or three times a week. Today she’s already waited two hours and is still in the middle of the snaking line, nowhere near the pumps. “No one wants to queue up here,” she says. “It is really time-consuming and making things more difficult for our family.”