CCTV Transcripts

CCTV Script 01/12/21

— This is the script of CNBC's news report for China's CCTV on December 1, 2021, Wednesday.

AleaSoft Energy Forecasting, a company based in Spain that has been tracking electricity benchmarks across Europe, reports that in the fourth week of November prices of most European electricity markets rose and the weekly average broke €200/MWh in most of them. That is the highest in nearly all markets in the region. The company also noted Italy and Germany might witness some pullback thanks to higher wind energy production. However, the minister of economic and development of Italy warned on Tuesday that blackouts cannot be ruled out due to the current energy supply structure.

And before that, the Austrian minister of defense said that the question is not if but when a blackout will happen. She also recommended citizens to dine at home for at least two weeks. In Spain, due to fears of blackouts, demand for torches and portable stoves has already increased. It is reported that some essential goods for power outages were stolen in Spain. There are also people worrying that blackouts will spread across Europe just like wildfires.

In Europe, higher electricity bills have been a major force behind inflation recently. Fresh data released Tuesday showed that the annual inflation rate across Euro countries was 4.9% in November, the highest in about 25 years. Now, Italy has been calling the EU to study on mid-term responses against hiking energy prices.

Last month, Italian consumers paid 33.2% more on electricity bills compared with a year ago. The government set aside 1.2 billion euros in June and over 3 billion euros in September to help ease the burden, and will step in again,"with particular attention to the most vulnerable", says Mario Draghi, Prime Minister of Italy. While the energy crisis is pushing inflation higher, the new variant Omicron is bringing new uncertainties that may challenge the ECB.

Xavier Musca

Deputy CEO of Crédit Agricole

" I have the feeling that the consensus among policy market makers and in market participants is growing on the idea that inflation will remain in the future the key question is whether central banks will be able to monitor the evolution of the situation and prevent disruptive movement. "