conflict getting any better, but certainly in terms of oil prices, they have now stabilised around $100 a barrel, which is a far cry from about 139 that they had reached just about 139 that they had reached just a few weeks ago. that is of course partly because the us has intervened by releasing quite a lot of its strategic oil reserves, but it s also the fact that china has closed down some of its major cities and growth there is slowing down they are demanding that much oil, so we have to depend on things like that happening, but otherwise, it s very uncertain, and all those prices are likely to stay very volatile for a while to come. is likely to stay very volatile for a while to come. likely to stay very volatile for a while to come. , ., ., , ., while to come. is that anything that ou think while to come. is that anything that you think the while to come. is that anything that you think the government while to come. is that anything that you think the government could i while
the extraordinary confluence of events coming out of the covid pandemic. we have inflation up, new figures up, 6.2% in february. that combined with things like the russian war in ukraine increasing prices even more. just in the last couple of hours on the bbc news channel and bbc two, we have seen an extraordinary range of guests, or people coming on as talking about the exact challenges they are facing now, talking about things like vat rates for business owners, wages, cost of food and drink, electricity, national insurance. incredible squeeze at the moment on the cost of living. and one of the ideas of some people calling for we will see what the chancellor responds with. but possibly things like action on fuel duty, national insurance, increase in universal credit. we will wait to see. not long to wait, about an hour and a half before the chancellor gets up to speak. now it s time for a look at the weather with carol.
too. t provides and who it gives that help too. .. provides and who it gives that help too. ~ ., ., too. i think there are a few things. i think an immediate too. i think there are a few things. i think an immediate short - too. i think there are a few things. i think an immediate short term, | i think an immediate short term, the government has put in place the cultural recovery fund which has helped a lot of people, but that fund now needs more money, the emergency resource fund needs more money and topping up and they need to look at the urgent criteria as are as key criteria that they have excluded quite a lot of companies and shows so we need that to be widened in the immediate short term. we really need to look at how we can get money quickly to the workforce, whether that is the employed workforce or self employed workforce and then looking a bit further ahead, we need to think about looking again at the vat rates because it is currently at 12 and a half percent and it had be
the supply chain that we have to think about. the freelance economy of artists, musicians, you know, and suppliers from the supply chain. it s a much wider impact. the simple things in their remit to be able to do to keep the levers that they have now, which are vat rates at a lower percentage and return back to 5%, business rates holidays that should extend into 2022, and the deferral of these repayments. because of the public and organisations have taken out bounce back lanes, and are forced to repay them in a period i ve got no income, then it s only the public purse that is going to have to stomach that. therefore we have to stomach that. therefore we have an imbalance that we have to use the levers and mechanisms that are logistical and that we can achieve now immediately and that work. we ve seen it work before, we ve been here before. [30 work. we ve seen it work before, we ve been here before.-