British Economy
A potential EU ban on Russian oil and gas imports could cause economic disruption across Europe and cost the UK around £70 billion in losses.
According to the Financial Times on Friday, this assessment was presented by Britain’s finance minister, Rishi Sunak, at a meeting of the UK Cabinet held last week.
The newspaper quoted the British chancellor as saying that an immediate European Union ban on imports of Russian hydrocarbons would trigger a recession across Europe, and would deal “an immediate blow to the British economy by 70-75 billion pounds ($92.1 billion – $98.7 billion)”. .
The minister expressed his concern about the repercussions of such a ban, which the United Kingdom and the United States are seeking to implement by the European Union, according to a report by the Financial Times.
On March 8, US President Joe Biden signed a decree banning energy imports from Russia and new investment in the Russian energy sector. And after Washington, London announced its intention to phase out Russian hydrocarbons.
The US Treasury has set a deadline for completing the transactions for importing oil, petroleum products, liquefied natural gas and coal from Russia into the country until April 22nd.
The newspaper reported that Russia accounts for about 40% of natural gas imports into the European Union, and about a third of crude oil imports. The United Kingdom and the United States depend on Russia to a much lesser extent, and Russia’s share in the total volume of oil imported by the Kingdom is about 8%.
