You would have noticed that the fuel prices are going up again. The UK no longer imports fuels from Russia so these price increase are not limited to Putin’s actions.
Global oil prices are set by OPEC+ which is a group of 23 oil producing companies, OPEC+ is Saudi led and includes Russia.
To maintain high profit levels they control the supply and demand. They deliberately limit the fuel available to keep the prices high – the ultimate example of price fixing.
Recent increases in the cost of crude oil reflected a reduction in production which suggests that OPEC+ expected a global slow down. These increases are still filtering down to the pumps – prices are likely to go higher.
These increases were in place before the awful situation associated with Israel.
Rising fuel prices, concerns about the cost of heating our homes in the winter, high inflation rates, increases in mortgage rates and a war breaking out in the Middle East have impacted on consumer confidence which reversed its positive trend this month dropping to -30 from -21.
Joe Staton, client strategy director at GfK, said: “The fierce headwinds of meeting the accelerating costs of heating our homes, filling our petrol tanks, coping with surging mortgage and rental rates, a slowing jobs market and now the uncertainties posed by conflict in the Middle East, are all contributing to this growing unease.”
It’s a pretty gloomy outlook at the moment and worth revisiting business plans and income expectations. Cost of fuel will be increasing, revenue generated by sales is likely to decrease and following the storms in the UK this week we are likely to see a surge in insurance premiums again.
Prudence may be in order, risk avoidance and precautionary saving wherever possible until things steady a little.
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