{"id":449237,"date":"2026-04-01T11:10:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/04\/01\/iran-e-caro-energia-il-belgio-in-allarme-per-le-scommesse-su-un-possibile-default\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T11:30:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:30:28","slug":"iran-conflict-and-energy%e2%80%91price-surge-put-belgium-on-alert-over-market-default-bets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/04\/01\/iran-conflict-and-energy%e2%80%91price-surge-put-belgium-on-alert-over-market-default-bets\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran conflict and energy\u2011price surge put Belgium on alert over market default bets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Brussels \u2013 The economic repercussions of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/03\/02\/eu-condemns-irans-inexcusable-attacks-in-the-region-as-the-us-and-israel-continue-their-strikes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">war between the United States and Israel<\/a> in Iran are a cause for concern for the governor of the Belgian central bank, who fears that if the conflict drags on<b>, the financial markets might start betting on Belgium&#8217;s defaulting<\/b>. \u201c<span lang=\"it-IT\">We are truly vulnerable, and it would only be a matter of time before the markets react\u201d, said <b>Pierre Wunsch<\/b> during a hearing before the Chamber\u2019s Finance Committee.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"it-IT\">The head of the Belgian Central Bank, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecb.europa.eu\/ecb\/decisions\/govc\/html\/index.en.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">and a member of the &nbsp;of European Central Bank&#8217;s Governing Council<\/a>, appearing before parliamentarians to present the 2025 annual report, expressed concerns about the health and sustainability of the national public finances should military operations not cease and trade not resume along the Strait of Hormuz: in such a scenario, he warns, the <strong>Belgian monarchy faces \u201cvery weak growth, or even a technical recession,<\/strong>\u201d which translates into \u201ca contraction in gross domestic product for two consecutive quarters.&#8221; The result: \u201cThe deficit will therefore increase by 1\u20132 per cent of GDP, and we will be truly vulnerable.\u201d<\/span>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He therefore called on lawmakers to act with prudence and pursue reforms to keep debt and deficit under control.&nbsp;Wunsh warns: \u201c<strong>The money has run out.<\/strong>\u201d Put another way, \u201cthe resources we had in 2022 to tackle the crisis no longer exist,\u201d and&nbsp;therefore, envisaging new public spending is practically impossible, unless the government is willing to risk market speculation and downgrades from rating agencies. Because, on this point, the message was clear: Belgium could find itself in the crosshairs of financial markets. <\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Belgium\u2019s Minister for Defence and Trade, the Flemish <strong>Theo Francken<\/strong> (NVA), announced his intention to join <span class=\"HwtZe\" lang=\"it\"><span class=\"jCAhz ChMk0b\"><span class=\"ryNqvb\">the coalition of countries willing to guarantee free passage through the Strait of Hormuz. &#8220;We are working together with France and all other willing partners to achieve this strategic goal once conditions in the region will allow for it, such as a ceasefire,&#8221; he wrote on his X profile. The reason for this decision is linked precisely to the country\u2019s financial stability: \u201c<strong>Freedom of navigation is essential for our security and economic stability.<\/strong>\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pierre Wunsch, Governor of the Belgian Central Bank: &#8220;We are vulnerable; the markets could react.&#8221; A call for reforms and control of public finances<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":449234,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25705],"tags":[25881,25801,33392,28413,26107,25740],"class_list":["post-449237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-belgian-cat-en","tag-energia","tag-expensive-energy","tag-inflation-en","tag-accounts-public-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449237"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":449238,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449237\/revisions\/449238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}