Crude prices could rise to more than $150 a barrel if the conflict in the Middle East escalates, the World Bank warned on Monday, risking a repeat of the 1970s oil price shock if key producers cut supplies.
In its quarterly Commodities Markets Outlook, the multilateral lender said a prolonged Israel-Hamas conflict could drive big rises in energy and food prices in a “dual shock” for commodity markets still reeling from Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“The latest conflict in the Middle East comes on the heels of the biggest shock to commodity markets since the 1970s — Russia’s war with Ukraine,” said Indermit Gill, the World Bank’s chief economist and senior vice-president for development economics.