00:00In the wake of the US-Israeli assault on Iran and Iran's reprisals against countries across the
00:05region, the threat of rising bills is upon us. So how exactly is Britain's economy being impacted
00:12by Trump's war on Iran? On Sunday night, the benchmark oil price passed $100 a barrel for
00:18the first time since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This dramatic increase comes
00:24at the start of the second full week of the US President's war on Iran and is creating fears
00:30around the knock-on effects for the global economy. Petrol prices have already jumped on UK forecourts
00:35and there are now growing concerns that the oil price spike will quickly feed through to the overall
00:41rate of inflation, delaying interest rate cuts and holding back economic growth. There will also be
00:47deep concern about the impact of rocketing gas prices due to Qatar being one of the biggest suppliers
00:53of liquefied natural gas to the UK. If this continues to skyrocket, that will inevitably feed
00:59through to energy bills later in the year, potentially triggering a new round of domestic
01:03inflation and even higher interest rates. So how long can Britain survive on its existing reserve?
01:09New data from National Gas shows the UK currently has around 6,700 gigawatt hours of gas in storage.
01:17This is equivalent to roughly one and a half days of winter demand. Britain may be exposed to sudden
01:22supply shocks or price spikes due to the limited storage capacity. Chancellor Rachel Reeves is
01:27speaking to the Governor of the Bank of England on a daily basis and the Prime Minister has acknowledged
01:33these concerns and braced Britain for the economic fallout from the conflict in the Middle East.
01:38People will sense, you will sense. I think that the longer this goes on, the more likely the potential for
01:46an impact on our economy,
01:47impact into the lives and households of everybody and every business. And our job is to get ahead of that,
01:55to look around the corner, assess the risks, monitor the risks and work with others in relation to that.
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