said<\/a> Tuesday that it would cut 20,000 flights from its schedule through October to save on jet fuel, \u201cthe price of which has doubled since the outbreak of the Iran conflict.\u201d\n <\/p>\n\n For some businesses, the impact of the energy crunch has been particularly severe. For example, a number of European fishermen have stopped fishing because profits have been hit so hard by the rise in energy and raw material costs, according to the bloc\u2019s executive.\n <\/p>\n
\n Last week, the European Commission triggered a \u201ccrisis mechanism\u201d to allow EU member states to provide direct financial support to fishers and fishmongers. \u201cThe people who bring seafood to our tables deserve our full support when a crisis beyond their control threatens their livelihoods,\u201d said Costas Kadis, in charge of the EU\u2019s fisheries and aquaculture sector.\n <\/p>\n
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\n Businesses and households could also be hit by soaring prices for plastics and detergents. Germany\u2019s BASF, one of the world\u2019s largest chemicals makers, has hiked prices for everything from formic acid, used in animal feed, to homecare products \u2013 in some cases by more than 30%.\n <\/p>\n
\n The German Chemical Industry Association told CNN this week that the Iran war had dealt a \u201csignificant blow\u201d to hopes for an improvement this year in the economic fortunes of Europe\u2019s biggest economy, Germany.\n <\/p>\n
\n The German and broader European chemical industries will continue to see a shortage of orders, and plants will still be unable to operate profitably, it said. \u201cAs a result, further production shutdowns and job cuts are to be expected.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Europe will likely fall into recession if the Iran war persists through the first half of this year and \u201cdisruptions to energy supplies are more extensive,\u201d predicted Neil Shearing, chief economist at consultancy Capital Economics.\n <\/p>\n
\n So far, the International Monetary Fund has already downgraded its forecast for this year\u2019s economic growth in the 21 countries that use the euro. In updated estimates last week, it also made a sharp downward revision for growth in the United Kingdom.\n <\/p>\n
\n UK inflation rose last month for the first time since December on the back of a jump in fuel prices, official data showed Wednesday. Food prices and air fares also rose at a faster clip in March.\n <\/p>\n
\n UK fuel retailers said surging pump prices have led to an increase in fuel theft at gas stations, including by first-time offenders, reflecting increased financial pressure on households.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThis is just the first wave of the energy shock, primarily showing up in higher prices at the pump,\u201d said Adam Deasy, an economist at PwC United Kingdom. \u201cWe are yet to see the knock-on impact of price pressures in\u2026 byproducts to oil and gas, such as fertilizer, helium, plastics or metals.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/gettyimages-2266804946.jpg\")
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\n Vital materials could also soon be in short supply. Last month, the UK government temporarily restarted a mothballed bioethanol plant to shore up supplies of carbon dioxide, which is critical to healthcare and the production of some foodstuffs. A spike in natural gas prices caused by the war has disrupted EU fertilizer production, making imports of CO2, a byproduct of that process, less readily available.\n <\/p>\n
\n The rise in natural gas prices has also raised the price of electricity in the United Kingdom, where the costs are linked. On Wednesday, UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband set out various measures<\/a>, including extending rooftop solar installations at schools and building more renewable energy projects on public land, to \u201chelp cut bills for families and deliver more clean, homegrown power.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"London\u00a0\u2014\u00a0 The European Union has unveiled a raft of planned emergency measures to cushion its economy from soaring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-621575","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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