Economic volatility induced by natural resources in Lao PDR is related mainly to the price
of copper and to a lesser extent the prices of gold, other metals, and electricity. The reason for the
small role played by electricity is in the way in which hydropower contracts are written. The developers
mostly make agreements with EGAT, which sets a price for electricity for, on average, 20 years in
advance. Therefore, in this paper, we mostly study mineral prices. Within minerals, copper accounts for
the lion’s share of exports and volume produced (Figure 19), and therefore is the most likely source of
volatility for the economy. Gold prices behave similarly to those of copper, as metal prices have been
shown to be driven mostly by fundamentals. The prices of metals have been found to be correlated.
Laos’ underdeveloped financial sector makes it particularly vulnerable to exchange rate
volatility, as discussed in the previous section. For countries with relatively low levels of financial
development, such as Laos (Figure 21), exchange rate volatility generally reduces growth, whereas in
financially advanced countries, it has no significant effect.