{"id":373748,"date":"2026-03-30T23:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T23:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/373748\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T23:28:08","slug":"imf-warns-iran-conflict-will-lead-to-higher-prices-as-trump-makes-new-threat-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/373748\/","title":{"rendered":"IMF warns Iran conflict will lead to higher prices as Trump makes new threat \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The limited amount of oil<\/a>, gas and fertiliser making its way out of the Gulf due to the war in the Middle East<\/a> will lead to \u201chigher prices and slower growth worldwide\u201d, the International Monetary Fund<\/a> has warned.<\/p>\n

In a stark message, the Washington-based organisation said a rise in energy and food costs would harm economic growth across the globe this year and could leave lasting scars on the economy.<\/p>\n

Latest official data for Ireland indicates that the price of energy jumped by 11 per cent in March alone, while overall inflation has climbed to 3.6 per cent, up from a rate of 2.5 per cent in February.<\/p>\n

Coming only hours after US<\/a> president Donald Trump<\/a> threatened to \u201cobliterate\u201d Iran<\/a>\u2019s energy infrastructure unless it agreed to a peace deal, the IMF\u2019s analysis is likely to be viewed as a warning to the White House over the war\u2019s lasting consequences for struggling households.<\/p>\n

The mixed messages from Trump continued on Monday, making it difficult to assess if the Middle East war will escalate in the coming days.<\/p>\n

Trump said the US was conducting \u201cserious discussions\u201d with Iran to end its military operations against the country, while also stating that failure to keep the Strait of Hormuz open could prompt US attacks on Iran\u2019s oil and power infrastructure.<\/p>\n

In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that \u201cgreat progress has been made\u201d but, if for any reason a deal is not reached shortly, \u201cwe will conclude our lovely \u2018stay\u2019 in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating\u201d all of their electricity plants, oil wells and, possibly, water desalinisation plants.<\/p>\n

US secretary of state Marco Rubio<\/a> cautioned that Washington must be prepared for the \u201cprobability\u201d that Iran will reject US diplomatic efforts to end the war.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei stressed that Tehran has not had any direct negotiations with the US, but has rejected proposals received via mediators. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe proposals presented in the negotiations are illogical, the American position in diplomacy cannot be trusted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Trump issues new warning to Tehran as Iran rejects US demandsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Trump was the only person who could stop the war. \u201cPlease help us stop the war. You are capable of doing so,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Israel<\/a> said it struck a university in Tehran run by Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards, claiming the institution was used for advanced weapons research. Israel also hit Iran\u2019s air defences near the Caspian Sea in the north of the country. <\/p>\n

Sirens sounded across large areas of Israel amid missile and drone attacks from Iran and Hizbullah<\/a> in Lebanon<\/a>. Israel\u2019s main oil refinery in the northern port of Haifa was hit again, lightly wounding one person and sending thick black smoke into the sky. <\/p>\n

Trump warned that a response to the refinery attack would come \u201cshortly\u201d. Israeli environmental activists urged the government to evacuate the refinery.<\/p>\n

As the Israel Defense Forces<\/a> continued their push to the Litani river in south Lebanon, an Indonesian United Nations<\/a> peacekeeper was killed and another seriously wounded in an explosion at a Unifil<\/a> position. The UN strongly condemned the incident and launched an investigation. <\/p>\n

More than 1,200 people have died and more than a million people have been displaced or made homeless in the fighting across Lebanon.<\/p>\n

In a blog post by the IMF\u2019s main department heads, including the chief economist, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, the IMF said governments with high levels of borrowing would also have limited access to funds that could be used to cushion the worst effects of the crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough the war could shape the global economy in different ways, all roads lead to higher prices and slower growth,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA short conflict might send oil and gas prices soaring before markets adjust, while a long one could keep energy expensive and strain countries that rely on imports,\u201d the blog post warned. \u201cOr the world may settle somewhere in between \u2013 tensions linger, energy stays costly and inflation proves hard to tame \u2013 with ongoing uncertainty and geopolitical risk.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The limited amount of oil, gas and fertiliser making its way out of the Gulf due to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,969,123265,61,2535,21326,11829,60,3410,4267,150432,14396,6000,115,90],"class_list":["post-373748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-donald-trump","tag-hizbullah","tag-ie","tag-imf","tag-international-monetary-fund","tag-iran","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-israel-defence-forces","tag-israel-iran-conflict","tag-lebanon","tag-oil","tag-united-states","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}