MOSCOW (Realist English). In 2022, Russia’s revenues from oil and gas exports will reach $285 billion, which is 20% more than last year’s windfall. This forecast is made by the American agency Bloomberg.
“With Russia more financially stable than many in the West had hoped, Putin has been unafraid of shutting the gas valve to Europe. Only this week, Russia tightened gas flows and sent European prices surging 24%, an act some experts said was “politically motivated.” For as long as Putin has this much control over energy prices, the West will be fearful of constrained energy supply. And with fuel prices being one of the main drivers of inflation in the U.S., Putin’s actions could lead to a prolonged period of high prices,” believes Tristan Bove, the columnist of the Fortune business magazine.
The head of the World Bank, David Malpass, expects a slump in global economic growth in 2022 amid rising inflation, rising interest rates and the Ukrainian crisis. According to him, we are talking about stagflation, which the world has not seen since the 1970s. Malpass predicts ” several years of above-average inflation and below-average growth.”
U.S. inflation hit a 40-year high of 8.6% in May, pushing up the cost of rent and labor. Stating that inflation has become the biggest financial problem of ordinary Americans, “since prices are rising for everything from gasoline to groceries,” Fortune magazine is trying to write off America’s financial problems to the Ukrainian crisis, thereby denying the depravity of capitalism as a socio-economic system that generates inequality.
