UK must be prepared for a price shock from the Iran war | Heather Stewart

Governments are having to wake up to the fact they will have to take a closer interest in supply chains for essentials Oil prices ‘could breach $100 a barrel within days’ amid supply disruption from Iran war Donald Trump’s assault on Iran and the deadly conflict it has unleashed is grim and unprecedented – but there is a familiarity to its economic consequences: brace yourself for another price shock. From the Covid shutdown and subsequent reopening to Russian tanks rolling into Ukraine, the global economy has been rocked by one cost surge after another. Meanwhile, the climate crisis means more volatility in the cost of commodities whose production is vulnerable to extreme weather events – coffee, cocoa and olive oil. The reaction to Trump’s Operation Epic Fury in the energy markets was initially relatively restrained. On Friday, though, with the critical strait of Hormuz effectively closed, and reports of production cuts in Kuwait, the dam seemed to break, pushing oil to $90 (£67) a barrel. Oil shocks are especially painful because of the commodity’s wider uses, not least in fertiliser, and the knock-on effects for manufacturing and transport. And poorer people are hit hardest. Re