Even before the start of hostilities in Ukraine, increases in the prices of energy products were generating inflationary pressures. For instance, in the United States the last monthly figures on inflation, released last week by the Labor Department, revealed that in February, after the prices of used cars increased 41.2 percent, the prices of gasoline increased 38 percent, while piped utility gas prices increased 23.8 percent.
This explains why, after banning imports of oil and other energy products from Russia, over the last weekend, representatives of the US government traveled to Caracas to explore with the government of Venezuela how to increase Venezuelan oil production and exports, presently excluded through sanctions from the world market. The same can be said of the possibility of concluding the ongoing negotiations on a nuclear accord with the government of Iran, which would allow the return to the world market of Iranian oil exports, also presently subjected to sanctions.
At the start of this week, oil prices fell to less than $100 per barrel. US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, last week at a conference in Houston, declared: “We have to responsibly increase short-term supply where we can right now to stabilize the market.” (The Wall Street Journal 03/11/22).
*International analyst and consultant, former Director ECLAC Washington. Commentator on economic and financial issues for CNN en Español TV and radio, UNIVISION, TELEMUNDO and other media.
