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outubro 25, 2004
Almunia says oil price rise has "negative" impact on EU growth
[Fonte: France Press]
Surging oil prices have had a "negative" impact on European economic growth and that drag has been factored into the European Commission's upcoming forecasts, EU monetary affairs commissioner Joaquin Almunia said. Almunia, addressing the European Parliament, said the economic forecasts he would publish Tuesday have taken into account the increase in oil prices over recent weeks, an "impact which isn't positive, and is even rather negative." He said the 2005 growth forecast would be affected by the surge in oil prices. But he said he did not expect oil prices to remain above 50 dollars a barrel. The price of crude vaulted to new record highs Monday on concerns about tight supplies of winter heating fuel in the United States and an oil-sector strike in Norway, the third-largest crude exporter after Saudi Arabia and Russia. Oil hit a peak of 55.67 dollars a barrel in New York while Brent crude reached an all-time high 51.90 dollars in London. European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet earlier told the parliament that the 12-state eurozone economy was likely to continue growing at its current pace, but noted that high oil prices could dampen the speed of the recovery. Trichet told the European Parliament that eurozone gross domestic product (GDP) in the second quarter grew by 2.0 percent from a year earlier and quarterly growth rates since mid-2003 had been between 0.4 and 0.7 percent, so growth has been close to its potential rate over the past 12 months. The ECB puts the eurozone's potential GDP growth rate at 2.0-2.5 percent. "We expect a continuation of this growth trend in the coming quarters," he said. But he said oil prices could dampen the pace of the recovery. "If oil prices were to remain high, or even to increase further, they could dampen the strength of the recovery, both inside and outside the euro area," he said. Trichet said that inflation remained under control for the moment. "The available information does not indicate that stronger underlying inflationary pressures are building up domestically as yet," he said.
Publicado por esta às outubro 25, 2004 10:05 PM