US president Joe Biden has blamed Russia’s Vladimir Putin for the surge in gas and food prices globally. The war in Ukraine has entered day 38 after Moscow launched a surprise offensive on February 24. “Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has driven up gas prices and food prices all over the world. To help deal with that, yesterday I authorized the release of 1 million barrels per day for the next six months from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve. (sic),” the US president wrote on Twitter on Saturday.
As Biden announced the release of 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve to combat gas prices, he said that it was not known how much gasoline prices could decline as a result of his move, but he suggested it might be “anything from 10 cents to 35 cents a gallon.” “The bottom line is if we want lower gas prices we need to have more oil supply right now. This is a moment of consequence and peril for the world, and pain at the pump for American families,” he was quoted as saying in a White House statement.
On Thursday, the International Monetary Fund’s new chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has delivered a “sizable shock” to the global economy that will challenge policymakers to tame inflation without quashing growth. However, Gourinchas said the US may not be staring at a recession just yet.
“We’re not looking at a recessionary environment in the U.S., at least in the near future,” he was quoted as by Bloomberg. “What we are seeing is along the lines of a slowdown in growth but still solidly in positive territory.”
Russia, which has been hit by crippling sanctions from the West, is being led into recession and starting to turn back into a closed economy, a senior US Treasury official had said on Friday.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon has announced USD 300 million more in security assistance to Ukraine after the war-torn nation urged for more advanced weaponry from the US and European nations to counter the Russian invasion. Among other things, the new package includes — Switchblade suicide drones, Anti-drone systems, Armoured vehicles, Night-vision equipment, and Ammunition.
With this, the US has by far committed more than USD 2.3 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the start of the Biden administration, according to the statement from Pentagon press secretary John Kirby.