Crude will star at G8 ministers' meet
June 13, 2008
By Yuri Kageyama
Tokyo - Runaway oil prices are high on the minds of finance ministers from the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations meeting this week in Japan, seeking to calm global jitters about a series of looming economic problems.
Soaring crude oil costs and rising food prices have created inflationary risks not seen in years.
Add to that the credit crunch still threatening global growth and international markets, as well as persistent worries about a US economic slump, and finance ministers have a long list of worries to address at the two-day meeting from today in Osaka.
Concerns that the US economy, by far the world's largest, is sliding into a recession have worsened after figures last week showed that the unemployment rate skyrocketed from 5 percent to 5.5 percent last month, the biggest jump in two decades.
US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, who will not be at the G8 meeting, has tried to allay fears, saying that the risk of a "substantial downturn" had waned in recent weeks.
The Fed's interest rate cuts, the government's $168 billion (R1.3 trillion) stimulus package, and progress in fixing the financial and credit market problems were helping prop up the American economy, he said. Solid US exports for the rest of the year would also help.
Bernanke said recent energy price gains had raised inflation risks and that the Fed would "strongly resist" any erosion in long-term expectations for prices.
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