To a question about whether the US economy could work without a deal, and whether inflation would come down, the US treasury secretary said that oil prices had already come down substantially.

“We are pumping more oil than we’ve ever seen before. As I said, these are short-term challenges that we will get over and I think we’ll move forward.”

He said the US had been exporting more energy than ever before, and there are almost 2,000 ships waiting to come out of the Gulf. “I think the oil market’s going to be very well-supplied on the other side of this. I would expect on the other side of this that gasoline prices will follow.”

“Natural gas is down and the futures market is showing us that oil will be lower than pre-conflict levels. We are more resilient to energy price fluctuations due to President Trump’s energy dominance and deregulatory agenda.”