The September 2005 edition of the ASPO newsletter is out. The lead item talks about the economic impact of high oil prices :
The world has never been to peak oil before so we may not immediately recognize what we are seeing. The International Energy Agency says demand — especially from China — is not what it was supposed to be this year, so we can all relax for a while and enjoy the rest of the summer.
Below the radar of even the most attentive newspaper readers, however, the first stirrings of peak oil reality are starting to trickle in. Not surprisingly, most of these reports come from the poorer parts of the world where $60 oil is simply too much for fragile economies ...
Thus, despite what some people have been saying that those in the poorer countries can "simply go back to farming", or that "they won't be affected since they don't use much oil anyway", it is turning out that high oil prices are actually hitting these countries harder than those in the more developed countries.