South Asian fertilizer and fuel crunch.
prob 0.50
severity 3.7 / 5 · revision 2026-05-10elevated · 8 South Asian economies · fertilizer + fuel + food$ shortage country get MDV > stress_index: 0.55 WATCH > 1 events · 1 scenarios > refreshed 2026-05-17
BRENT $105.4/b ▼ TTF €81.97/MWh ▲ OPEC_ORB $108.8/b ● SPR_US 286.6 Mb ▼ FAO_FFPI 133.3 ▲
The v3.2 stress index is a six-axis composite of energy and food exposure, geopolitical pressure, fiscal headroom, demography and supply concentration, normalised to a 0–1 scale.
The Maldives imports all of its energy and food, generating power from diesel across hundreds of dispersed island grids. A tourism economy, it is acutely vulnerable: as one of the world's lowest-lying nations, sea-level rise is an existential threat.
The Maldives has no rivers or lakes and depends on rainwater, thin freshwater lenses and desalination.
No major lake or reservoir
| STOCK TYPE | RESERVE | DAYS COVER | STATUS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oil · commercial inventoriesAll fuel is imported to run diesel grids across a vast, dispersed archipelago. | moderate | 25days | WATCH |
| Food · commercial stocksWith no agriculture, the Maldives imports all of its staple food. | minimal | 25days | WATCH |
$ curl -s https://api.shortage.life/v1/countries/MDV | jq '.stress' > 0.55