{"id":518899,"date":"2026-03-04T21:31:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T21:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/518899\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T21:31:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T21:31:15","slug":"mideast-oil-crisis-revives-stagflation-spectre-haunting-chinas-deflation-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/518899\/","title":{"rendered":"Mideast oil crisis revives stagflation spectre, haunting China\u2019s deflation battle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Rising energy costs driven by Middle Eastern geopolitical tensions may provide some relief to China\u2019s years-long struggle with weak prices, but analysts warn that a spike in oil prices could spark a scenario in which stagnant economic growth collides with rising inflation, hindering the nation\u2019s economic recovery.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cRising oil prices [could] lead to stagflation, which helps increase the inflation rate but also leads to a decline in economic growth and an increase in unemployment,\u201d said Su Jian, an economics professor at Peking University.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Su, who is also director of the university\u2019s Centre for National Economic Research, pointed to two previous oil crises \u2013 during the 1973 Yom Kippur war, and after the Iranian revolution and subsequent Iran-Iraq war in the late 1970s and early 1980s \u2013 that triggered stagflation in oil-importing nations.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Higher costs have historically forced factories to cut production and lay off workers, while prices for goods continued to rise even as economies slowed, he noted.<\/p>\n<p>The current military confrontation between Iran and US-Israeli forces entered its fifth day on Wednesday, heightening risks to a region that is vital to global energy flows and <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/global-economy\/article\/3345291\/shipping-firms-suspend-gulf-routes-iran-war-leaves-132-vessels-trapped?pgtype=live?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">maritime trade<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Oil prices rose further on Wednesday. Brent crude \u2013 one of the leading benchmarks for the global crude oil commodity market \u2013 traded above US$84 per barrel, up 16 per cent since Friday, before hostilities escalated. And West Texas Intermediate crude, a key United States oil benchmark, had risen 15 per cent to above US$77.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rising energy costs driven by Middle Eastern geopolitical tensions may provide some relief to China\u2019s years-long struggle with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,3686,67226,99,512,55771,164,257795,5575,12241,55169,259137,109489,55772,28765,59535,259138,259136],"class_list":{"0":"post-518899","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-beijing","11":"tag-brent-crude","12":"tag-business","13":"tag-china","14":"tag-chinese-peoples-political-consultative-conference","15":"tag-economy","16":"tag-gary-ng","17":"tag-iran","18":"tag-middle-east","19":"tag-national-bureau-of-statistics","20":"tag-national-peoples-congress","21":"tag-natixis","22":"tag-peking-university","23":"tag-south-china-morning-post","24":"tag-stagflation","25":"tag-su-jian","26":"tag-us-israeli-forces"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}