Impact of Iran war hits African, Asian economies

The economic fallout from the Iran war reverberated globally.

South Africa said it may have to revise its budget forecasts, Semafor’s new correspondent in Johannesburg reported, and Egypt warned of a “near emergency” fiscal shortfall on dwindling traffic through the Suez Canal.

East Asian stock markets, meanwhile, plummeted. Countries such as Japan and South Korea are heavily dependent on energy imports, and have been hammered by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

One economy that may weather the storm is the world’s largest: Because the US is a net oil exporter and productivity is improving, the current crisis “doesn’t look like a prelude to a recession,” The Wall Street Journal’s chief economics commentator argued.