Not a “worst case state of affairs”. The president Emmanuel Macron assured Saturday Athens that the struggle within the Center East didn’t permit in the present day “to envisage any scarcity” of fuel in France, warning towards situations that threat inflicting “panic conduct.”
“The state of affairs is underneath management”
The boss of the French vitality large TotalEnergies Patrick Pouyanné estimated on Friday that if the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, within the Gulf, continued “one other two or three months”, France would enter “an period of vitality scarcity”. “We aren’t within the state of affairs which is without doubt one of the worst-case situations that you’ve described, which isn’t in the present day probably the most possible and which it isn’t for me to touch upon,” mentioned the French president, questioned about this speculation throughout a press convention as a part of his go to to Athens.
In keeping with him, “the worst factor, in these moments when there are tensions, geopolitical uncertainty, is that these tensions are elevated by panic conduct”. “And fairly often, the scarcity is created by these panic behaviors themselves,” he estimated. “I feel I can inform you at this stage that the state of affairs is underneath management”, regardless of the influence on costs, and that “in the present day, the state of affairs doesn’t make us envisage any scarcity”, continued Emmanuel Macron.
An increase in inflation
For the reason that begin of the struggle within the Center East on the finish of February, navigation within the Strait of Hormuz – the place a fifth of the oil and fuel consumed on the earth often passes – has been virtually paralyzed by Iran, a blockade to which is added that determined by American President Donald Trump on Iranian ports.
The battle has additionally led to a rise ininflation in lots of areas, notably within the euro zone the place it was revised upwards in March, to 2.6% over one yr in comparison with 2.5% initially introduced, thus reaching its highest stage since July 2024.
It is a robust enhance in comparison with February, when inflation stood at 1.9%, costs having been pushed up final month by the battle within the Center East and the surge in oil and fuel.
