And faced major European countries, including Germany, calls to stop buying gas and oil from Russia in order to dry up Moscow’s financial resources in response to its military operations in Ukraine.
Yellen told reporters after meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal and his Finance Minister Sergei Marchenko in Washington that such a ban could ultimately do more harm than good.
“It is clear that Europe needs to reduce its dependence on Russia for energy resources. But we need to be careful when we think about imposing a comprehensive European embargo, for example, on oil imports,” she added.
And she considered that the European embargo would raise global oil prices, “and contrary to what is expected, it may have a very small negative impact on Russia, because despite the fact that it exports less quantities, the prices that it will get for its exports may rise.”
Referring to the proposed ban, Yellen said, “If we can find a way to do that without harming the entire world by driving up energy prices, that would be ideal.”
The United States banned the purchase of Russian oil as part of a package of sanctions it announced with the aim of weakening Moscow’s economy, and many countries in Europe and elsewhere followed suit.
The European Union, which imports about 45 percent of its gas from Russia, is working to expand its sanctions to include an oil and gas embargo, but officials told AFP last week that such measures could take “months”.
The International Monetary Fund said this week that the war in Ukraine would significantly affect economic growth in the euro zone, lowering its forecast for this year to 2.8 percent from 3.9 percent in January.
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