THE chain of events on the economic front attests to how globalised the world is. As the Russia/Ukraine war ensues, everybody is feeling the pinch. It does not matter whether you are rich or poor.

In fact, the rich are the most losers particularly those around Vladimir Putin and the others whose investments are intertwined with Russia and Ukraine’s economies.

It was only a matter of time before the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other leading finance institutions revised the economic growth and inflation figures.

Thousands of kilometres away from the war, Lesotho is fighting for survival owing to rapid increases in the prices of fuel and food.

By the time the IMF somersaulted on its earlier predictions, thousands of Basotho were already pacing through a subdued economic activity.

As poor as we are, both declining economic growth and inflation are eating away at our dose of sanity. It doesn’t matter whether we do not have the timely figures but news about economic developments is so rife that you don’t need a local expert to verify the information.

If it’s not interest rates, it’s tighter regulation to control the financial markets right in our backyard.

The war in Ukraine has certainly cost Lesotho and the world its happiness.  The damage suffered and the lives lost are shared by us all.

It seems no amount of multilateral action is swift enough to quell the tension as aid and ammunition trickle in to save the situation.

Everybody is stressed trying to tackle their personal life or deal directly with the war. It’s like swallowing a bitter pill of globalisation.

Oil and food make up the bigger budget of household budgets in the small economies such as Lesotho and there’s no end in sight of the ever increasing prices as a result of the war.