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Energy Markets Rattled After Saudi Pipeline Attacks
Developing
In Short: Watch: Unions call for a 'social tariff' paid for by a bank surcharge to help low and middle earners with their energy bills, according to the leader of Britain's trade unionists.
Inflationary pressures have persisted since the pandemic, and the energy shock from the Iran war has exacerbated this, with diesel prices hitting all-time highs, according to Fortune.
The war in Ukraine continues to have an outsized impact on global energy markets, with an estimated 40% of Russia's oil-refining infrastructure offline, reducing global diesel supplies by about 3%.
What's still developing
- Watch: Unions call for tax on banks to subsidise energy bills The leader of Britain's trade unionists has told Andy Burnham the government should introduce a "social tariff", paid for by a bank surcharge, to help low and middle earners with their energy bills.
- American consumers are facing higher costs as the war in Iran pushes energy prices higher, with U.S. households having spent over $100 billion more this year due to elevated gasoline and diesel prices, an economist says.
- Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, told FOX Business that "higher oil prices and energy more broadly" have been the main economic consequence of the Iran war felt by U.S. households.
- American consumers have spent about $115 billion more this year due to the rise in energy prices amid the Iran war, Zandi said. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg) The war's impact has hit lower- and middle-income American households the hardest.
- Zandi said that higher-income households have been better able to digest the higher energy costs.
- "For lower- and middle-income Americans, it's tough, much more difficult. Their incomes on an after-inflation basis because of the war have come to a virtual standstill, and some are actually declining. Those folks, they don't own much stock, they may not even own a home and they have a fair amount of debt. So, they're struggling, and the high energy costs — the fact that we're paying over $4 a gallon — it really matters to those folks," Zandi said.
- "Ultimately, we'll figure it out. The oil that doesn't go through the strait will find other ways to get into the global marketplace, pipelines and other things. And we'll see more production in the rest of the world because you can make a lot of money now producing because prices are so high," Zandi explained.
- “The Russia situation is really critical,” said Matt Reed, president of the geopolitical and energy consultancy Foreign Reports.
Sources
- Fortunelink