While the price of energy imports has risen dramatically across the world, with international coal prices five times higher than a year ago and natural gas prices up to 10 times higher than last year, experts say there are reasons some Asian economies — particularly import-reliant, developing ones — have been hit hardest.

"If you're a country, especially an emerging economy like a Sri Lanka that has to buy those commodities, has to buy oil, has to buy natural gas, this is a real struggle," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics.

"You're paying a lot more for the things you need but the things you sell haven't gone up in price. So you're shelling out a lot more money to try to buy the same things to keep your economy running."

Poorer countries that are still developing or newly industrialized are simply less able to compete with more deep pocketed rivals — and the more they need to import, the bigger their problem will be, said Antoine Halff, adjunct senior research scholar at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy.

"So Pakistan certainly fits there. Sri Lanka I think fits there as well," he said. "They're taking the price hit but they're also taking the supply hit. They have to pay more for their energy supplies and in some countries like Pakistan, they actually have a hard time sourcing energy."

While the price of energy imports has risen dramatically across the world, with international coal prices five times higher than a year ago and natural gas prices up to 10 times higher than last year, experts say there are reasons some Asian economies — particularly import-reliant, developing ones — have been hit hardest.

"If you're a country, especially an emerging economy like a Sri Lanka that has to buy those commodities, has to buy oil, has to buy natural gas, this is a real struggle," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics.

"You're paying a lot more for the things you need but the things you sell haven't gone up in price. So you're shelling out a lot more money to try to buy the same things to keep your economy running."

Poorer countries that are still developing or newly industrialized are simply less able to compete with more deep pocketed rivals — and the more they need to import, the bigger their problem will be, said Antoine Halff, adjunct senior research scholar at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy.

"So Pakistan certainly fits there. Sri Lanka I think fits there as well," he said. "They're taking the price hit but they're also taking the supply hit. They have to pay more for their energy supplies and in some countries like Pakistan, they actually have a hard time sourcing energy."