Finance Ministers Meeting About Surging Oil Prices

The G7 nations’ finance ministers will convene this week to handle problems associated with surging oil process and global currency as China’s leader comes to town. Finance ministers and central bank chiefs will meet on Friday, before the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund hold their annual spring meetings over the weekend.
Ministers are expected to debate debt relief for the world’s poorest countries and discuss reforms needed to make the IMF more representative of emerging players. One risk factor for the global economy is crude oil prices, which remains at high levels. Global currency developments and interest rates are also big issues in the G7.
The IMF has warned that high oil prices are a growing danger not just for global growth but also for the heavy imbalance they are creating in national finances, not least in the United States. Tight oil supplies and tensions over Iran’s nuclear ambitions allowed Brent crude futures to break through 70 dollars a barrel for the first time. In addition, according to the IMF, the cash bonanza enjoyed by oil-exporting countries was being recycled in U.S. markets, helping to drive up the current U.S. account deficit still further.