UK energy bill hike begins

Normally today would be perfect for a little joke post, however, given everything going on, it wouldn’t really be appropriate.

This week has been pretty much dominated by the fall-out from today’s huge hike in domestic energy bills. 

The energy price cap today was formally raised by £700, with suggestions that the average bill would see an extra £500-£600 added on to it.

For context, Crude Oil is sitting at just under $100 a barrel, whilst this time last year it was around $65 a barrel.

With this in mind, the Governor of the Bank of England declared on Monday that the UK was facing a ‘historic shock to real incomes’.

Related to energy, European nations have been dusting off emergency plans and protocols after Putin threatened to turn the pipes off next month if ‘unfriendly’ nations don’t pay in Rubles (something which would massively undermine the current sanctions.)

This threat has stemmed the bleed from the ruble crash, with that currency now being restored to its pre-invasion levels.

Over the course of the week, Sterling dropped a point against the dollar but has been relatively stable over the course of the last 5 days. 

Against the Euro, we’ve seen a similar picture with Sterling ending the week in pretty much the same place as where it began.

In some positive news, a recently published analysis has shown that wind and solar power are now powering over 10% of the planet!

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Sonny Hellmers

Senior currency specialist