No global economic sector untouched by Iran war, six months in
Six months after the U.S. and Israel began bombing Iran on Feb. 28, the global economy has avoided the recession and surging oil prices that analysts warned of at the war’s outset. No corner of the world’s economy, however, has been left untouched.
When the U.S. and Israel struck Iran on Feb. 28, analysts forecast surging oil prices, worldwide recession and economic catastrophe. Six months in, those predictions have not come true. The damage that has materialized instead is uneven — airlines, energy producers, aerospace and defense companies, technology firms, the renewable-energy industry and developing economies have each felt the war’s effects in different ways.
Cerity Partners investment strategist Michael Ashley Schulman described the global economy as having “pulled off the financial equivalent of a ‘Mission Impossible’ scene.”
The early market response was driven by uncertainty. “Stock markets hate uncertainty, and the decision by the U.S. and Israel to attack Iran on Feb. 28 delivered heaps of it,” according to an Associated Press assessment published Sunday by Matt Sedensky. Columns of smoke rose from Tehran, the assessment reported, with frantic Iranians clogging roadways trying to escape and mounting deaths, including of children, making headlines.
The conflict’s effects continue to ripple through supply chains, energy markets, transportation networks and humanitarian operations, the assessment found.