Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
- BoE governor: UK recovery will take longer than thought
- Fed’s Powell: inflationary supply chain problems may persist
- Fuel crisis: UK government mobilises reserve tanker fleet and army
- Transport bosses call on governments across world to ease Covid restrictions
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy, the financial markets, the UK’s supply chain crisis and business.
The supply chain problems gripping the global economy are threatening to undermine the recovery, and raising fears of stagflation — that sickly mix of rising prices and slowing growth.
The pound has come under pressure as fears over “stagflation” stalk the economy amid a supply chain crisis and surging energy prices https://t.co/CqzjfjGWvv
“I expect us to be back to the pre-pandemic level in the early part of next year, possibly a month or two later than we thought we would be at the start of August.”
“the big challenge now is how we can get through this period of uneven growth, supply-side bumps and come out of the other side with both a smoother recovery and balance of supply and demand.”
Supply chain crisis derailing recovery, warns Andrew Bailey https://t.co/Js6D4fqItW
“The combination of strong demand for goods and the bottlenecks has meant that inflation is running well above target.
We expect that it will continue to do so in the coming months before moderating as bottlenecks ease.”
“How long these bottlenecks will take to fade out is a question we are monitoring very closely and this is on our radar screen.”
Fed’s Powell warns inflationary supply chain snags may persist https://t.co/QYOwbpyqPR
Related: ‘Desperate choices’ this winter as three more UK energy suppliers toppled by price surge
GAS MARKET: European natural gas closes at a fresh all-time high after rising >10% today (both for UK NBP and Dutch TTF benchmarks). At the close, European gas was at the equivalent of ~$29 per mBtu, or close to $170 per barrel of oil equivalent. Yes, you read that correctly.
Asian benchmark coal (Newcastle) has been changing hands on the spot market above $200 per tonne for the last couple of days, above the weekly all-time high set in July 2008. Incredible prices, with runaway Chinese demand clashing against ESG-crunched supply | #CommodityInflation pic.twitter.com/fMalfrCPKc
Fears over stagflation do appear to be rising, after all, how could they not be when you see the sorts of increases being seen in energy prices, a trend that will eat into people’s disposable income, thus reducing their capacity to spend on other incidentals.
“The last few days have been difficult, we’ve seen large queues. But I think the situation is stabilising, we’re getting petrol into the forecourts. I think we’re going to see our way through this.”
Related: Fuel crisis: UK government mobilises reserve tanker fleet and army
“I’m not guaranteeing anything. All I’m saying is that, I think the situation is stabilising.”
Related: Cheap meals for half-full tanks and stuck buses: UK fuel crisis begins to bite
