Energy Prices

Energy prices decreased 0.7% month on month in July, following June’s 14.0% fall.

Energy prices plunged at the quickest speed in several years in June after the U.S. and Iran agreed to reopen the Hormuz Strait. In July, prices continued to fall, but at a far softer pace. The U.S.-Iran truce collapsed, leading tanker traffic in the Strait—which had recovered in late June to nearly two-thirds of prewar levels—to return close to zero. As a result, the prices of diesel, gasoline and European natural gas shot up, while that of Brent stabilized. That said, U.S. natural gas prices declined sharply as domestic production rose and LNG exports cooled, and coking plus thermal coal also traded lower as China ramped up its output after a series of mine closures in June.