Brits worst hit by energy crisis in Western Europe – IMF

The UK is the most dependent European country on natural gas, analysis shows

The deepening energy crisis is hitting British household budgets harder than any country in Western Europe, The Guardian reported on Thursday, citing analysis by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The report also pointed out that the difference in cost burden on low-income and wealthy households is far greater in Britain than elsewhere in Europe. This was attributed to the UK’s heavy reliance on gas to heat homes and produce electricity at a time of spiking prices. In addition, the UK has the least energy efficient homes in Western Europe, according to the IMF.

The research found that the average UK household is expected to lose 8.3% of its total spending power in 2022 due to higher energy bills. Meanwhile, in Germany and Spain, the figure is expected to be 4%. Only Estonian and Czech households face a higher impact than the UK in all of Europe.

The poorest 10% of UK households are forecast to spend 17.8% of their budget on energy this year, while the wealthiest 10% will fork over just 6.1%. This difference of 11.7 percentage points is by far the greatest disparity among the 25 European countries assessed by the IMF. In France, the difference is 3.9 percentage points, while in the Netherlands it is 2.5.
The surging costs of other goods is expected to shave another 2% off of British household budgets in 2022.

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