Spiegel: EU countries may face inflation

EU countries may face a price shock and rising inflation due to the EU-imposed oil embargo against the Russian Federation.

These remarks came from the head of the European think tank Brueghel Guntram Wolff on Thursday in an interview with Der Spiegel magazine.

According to the expert's forecasts, European companies and consumers will suffer from high oil prices. At the same time, he noted that "inflationary pressures will continue", which could become "the worst possible scenario" for European countries. Wolf also believes that "the level of purchasing power [of the EU population] will decrease significantly."

At the same time, the expert believes that attempts by national governments to mitigate the consequences of a price shock by providing discounts on fuel, tax cuts and subsidies can lead to an increase in public debt.

The EU Council has finally adopted the sixth package of sanctions against the Russian Federation, including a postponed embargo on sea supplies of oil and oil products from Russia.

Temporary exceptions to the oil embargo are provided for the import of crude oil via oil pipelines for those EU states that, due to their geographical situation, suffer from a special dependence on Russian supplies and do not have any viable alternative options, the document says. These countries mean, first of all, Hungary and Slovakia.