while us wheat futures have surged 25% this week alone as markets attempt to price in the impact of a potential loss of russian supplies if the international community rolls out additional punitive measures against moscow. the cost of brent crude oil the international standard jumped close to 120 us dollars a barrel at one stage, marking the highest level since march 2012. russia is the world s second biggest exporter of oil. there are no sanctions in place which directly affect its oil supplies but many buyers are holding off from buying russian oil which is disrupting normal trade. here s where the markets are right now. there s a mixed picture on stock markets across europe. the russian rouble is continuing to lose value against us dollar, which will fuel inflation in russia. and there s the price of oil.
minister is given a bracing assessment of the cost and may need to spent more than 10 trillionien, 120 u.s. dollars on disaster relief and rebuilding. they will ask the public to should their burden and will mean major tax hikes. japan s government could also issue bonds to help cover the costs. the country s manufacturing industry are also sagging under the weight of the march earthquake and ensuing tsunami. manufacturing activity slumped to a two year low in march similar to the disasters in japan. the index released thursday fell to 36.4 down from 52.9 the previous month. japanese manufacturing is one of the clearest manifestations of the economic aftershocks of the earthquake and the tsunami.