Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Wednesday about the ‘economic shockwaves’ set off by the war in Ukraine, including disruptions to the flow of food and energy.
“Russia’s actions represent an unacceptable affront to the rules-based, global order, and will have enormous economic repercussions in Ukraine and beyond,” Yellen said iin a hearing with lawmakers.
“Globally, spillovers from the crisis are heightening economic vulnerabilities in many countries that are already facing higher debt burdens and limited policy options as they recover from Covid-19,” Yellen said.
“Russia’s invasion disrupted the flow of food for millions of people around the world and caused prices to spike.”
Yellen added that the US Treasury will ‘press multilateral development banks to speed up food aid to “vulnerable” countries.’
As anyone who has filled up their tank lately knows, energy prices have been driven higher by concerns about supply from Russia, which is the number one exporter of crude oil in the world.
“We are witnessing the vulnerability that comes from relying on one fuel source or one trade partner,” Yellen said, emphasizing that we need to ‘diversify energy sources and suppliers.’