TAIPEI, Taiwan, May 23 (UPI) -- Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia said this week they would cut back on oil subsidies and other countries may follow suit, analysts said.
In Taiwan, newly elected president Ma Ying-jeou said he would eliminate petroleum price controls as of June 1, the Financial Times reported Friday.
Malaysia said it would cap its oil subsidies at 2007 levels --- around $12.5 billion. Malaysian Finance Minister Nor Mohamed Yakcop also said electricity tariffs could rise.
"If there is a rise in the price of natural gas, we have to pass that along," he said.
Indonesia said it would raise fuel prices "soon," the Financial Times reported.
Many are now looking to see if China will be the next to cut subsidies, but the government said rumors to that effect were "groundless."
"It is probably more affordable for a country like China to subsidize than Indonesia," industry analyst Peter Gastreich of UBS in Hong Kong told the Financial Times. "But if oil prices keep going up, it is simply not in any country's best interest to keep subsidizing these prices indefinitely."
