Wholesale gas prices fall 5% as worst of crisis recedes       

Prices have plunged more than 80% from their August peak.

Wholesale European gas prices fell sharply below €50 a megawatt-hour for the first time in 17 months as the worst energy crisis in decades recedes, but with signs that further price declines are unlikely.

Prices have plunged by more than 80% from their August peak when Russia’s gas cuts hammered Europe's economy and pushed inflation to the highest in decades. Now, the continent is seeing a sharp turnaround as relatively mild weather, efforts to reduce energy consumption and strong inflows of liquefied natural gas, or LNG, from suppliers including the US and Qatar.