The financial cost of the Iran war is becoming clearer as according to the latest study by the Institute for Economics and Peace, the conflict is costing the global economy $2.2 trillion in annual GDP.
The US alone had spent $25 billion within two months of the war beginning, and sought a further $200 billion from Congress to continue operations. Economists estimate the long-term cost at around $1 trillion.
That cost does not stay on a balance sheet. It moves through supply chains, interest rates, insurance premiums and shipping costs until it arrives in grocery bills, fuel prices and mortgage repayments for households around the world.
In the latest episode of Business Extra, host Salim A. Essaid speaks with Steve Killelea, founder and executive chairman of the Institute for Economics and Peace, about how a war in the Middle East ends up affecting ordinary people, which costs hit hardest and fastest, and what $2.2 trillion back in the global economy would actually look like for the people who never had a say in the decision to go to war.
