FINANCIAL TIMES: The cost of oil imports for leading economies will surge to $1.5tn this year if crude prices stay at their current levels – a figure large enough to tip the world back into recession, the International Energy Agency warned on Friday.
Fatih Birol, the IEA’s chief economist, said the European Union was particularly vulnerable, with high oil prices now overtaking the sovereign debt crisis as the biggest problem.
Crude prices have risen 15 per cent this year against the backdrop of the west’s escalating nuclear stand-off with Iran, fanning fears that a fragile economic recovery is in jeopardy… (more)
