As the war in Ukraine drags on and Western sanctions against Russia tighten, the prospect of a normalization in energy prices is receding, raising the conflict’s toll on global economic growth, with Europe looking particularly vulnerable.
After a first climb in 2021 as the global economy began to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, energy prices surged again following Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, reflecting worries that oil and gas supplies from one of the world’s largest exporters would dry up because of military activity, Western sanctions or retaliation by Moscow.
