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Middle East crisis: Economist wonders whether more people will need to work from home

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Tue, 17 Mar 2026, 6:51pm
Westpac names its business and wealth head as next chief executive. Photo / 123RF
Westpac names its business and wealth head as next chief executive. Photo / 123RF

Middle East crisis: Economist wonders whether more people will need to work from home

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Tue, 17 Mar 2026, 6:51pm

A top economist advises thinking about working from home to save fuel.

Iran's maintaining its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz - retaliating to the continued bombing assault by the US and Israel.

It's led Sri Lanka to move to a four-day working week from tomorrow. 

Westpac economist Kelly Eckhold says unless things change quickly, something will have to be done within the next three weeks. 

"Through the Covid period, we were able to save quite a lot of fuel with the hard lockdowns. We're not going to save anywhere near that amount, but it'll certainly help provide more fuel for the higher-priority users of it." 

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