After many years of historically low-interest rates following the 2008 financial crisis, it seems that surging inflation will force the Federal Reserve to increase its rates.
It’s still unknown how the conflict in Ukraine will impact the Fed’s plans. Although the Ukraine crisis may slow the pace of the increases, there’s no reason to doubt the rises will still occur from March 2022 onwards. Most people now have the question: What now, and what will the knock-on effects be?
Oil is notorious for being one of the most volatile markets there is, and it’s hit the headlines even more recently for being volatile due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. With sanctions imposed on crude oil from Russia, oil prices are likely to continue increasing.
However, even before the Ukraine conflict, inflation and rising interest rates pushed up the oil price. Rising prices and oil are interconnected — higher inflation pushes oil prices up, but more significant oil prices raise prices elsewhere since almost everything in the economy relies on oil.