Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is sending shockwaves around the globe, and the ripples are expected to be felt on the New Zealand economy.
Jarden head of commodities, Nigel Brunel, told Breakfast energy markets have reacted “exactly as expected” to the crisis in Ukraine.
"I think it's 30-odd per cent of European's gas coming in from Russia, and I think 70 per cent of Russia's exports so we've seen big jumps in gas and oil markets,” he said.
He said while all markets “were moving up before this anyway”, there has been “constraints for quite a while”.
“This is really just having the expected impact of seeing quite a rise in both the price of oil and the price of gas.
"Those kind of markets don't like political uncertainty because of potential disruptions that they can cause… The markets hate that."
Brunel warned that we will see “decent jumps at the pump” as the price of oil rises and the value of the New Zealand dollar falls.
“Prices are probably going to keep rising for the short to medium term. It’ll stop at some point but for the short term, I think we’re going to see quite a big hike.”
He added that while the New Zealand stock market did drop "quite a bit" on Thursday “as expected”, meaning there will be impacts on people's investments and KiwiSaver, people shouldn’t panic.
“I think everyone’s got to look at their own personal circumstances and what they do here but I think what history has shown us, generally these turn out to be buying opportunities overall.
"This is all part and parcel of having investments - they go up, they go sideways, they go down."
Brunel said while it’s "not a great thing, obviously, what’s going on in Europe", he reiterated for Kiwis not to panic.
"Talk to your adviser, if you’ve got one, if you need advice about what you should be doing in times like this but don’t panic and you may find this becomes, over time, just another good buying opportunity which history has always shown us that."
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