How to help with energy bills
There are better, fairer and cheaper ways than meddling with prices
The energy crisis unleashed by Russia’s war on Ukraine is crushing Europe’s consumers and panicking its politicians. Natural-gas prices are eight times higher than they were last summer and traders expect precious little respite over the coming year. Global oil prices are nearly twice their level in January 2021. The result is rampant rises in living costs. By October a household in Britain could be paying more than £3,500 ($4,200) a year for energy, more than three times last year’s bill, leading the Bank of England to warn of inflation passing 13% before the year is out. Annual consumer-price inflation rates are already in double digits in half of the euro area’s member countries.
This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “How to help with those bills”
From the August 13th 2022 edition
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