Swine Flu Hurts Travel And Meat Prices

Concerns about swine flu have been hurting industries as diverse as airlines and pork production, and boosted demand for the dollar and the yen.

Airlines that were already struggling with a recession that slashed demand must now cope with a sharp fall in travel to Mexico, a popular tourist destination.

Falling demand for jet fuel is putting downward pressure on oil prices.

And pork producers, and the farmers who grow grain to feed pigs, have also seen prices for their commodities drop sharply as some nations banned imports of pork from Mexico and some parts of the United States. The ban, and the falling prices came even though health experts have said repeatedly that properly cooked pork does not transmit the flu.

Worried traders also sold the Mexican peso and some other currencies, and bought U.S. dollars and Japanese yen for their perceived safety in a crisis.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters. By VOA News.