Leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) powers warned on Tuesday that soaring oil and food prices pose a ”serious challenge” to world economic growth, calling for boosted crude production capacity.
”The world economy is now facing uncertainty and downside risks persist,” the G8 said in a joint statement.
”We express our strong concern about elevated commodity prices, especially of oil and food, since they pose a serious challenge to stable growth worldwide, have serious implications for the most vulnerable and increase global inflationary pressure,” the statement said.
”We are determined to continuously take appropriate actions, individually and collectively, to ensure stability and growth in our economies and globally,” they added, without announcing any concrete measures.
The G8 called for an increase in oil production and refining capacity to help stem soaring prices, which have soared five-fold since 2003.
”We have strong concerns about the sharp rise in oil prices, which poses risks to the global economy,” the leaders said in the special statement on the global economy issued during the second day of a three-day summit here.
”On the supply side, production and refining capacities should be increased in the short term,” they said, calling for ”concerted efforts” to address the underlying causes of the rise that has seen crude hit more than $140 a barrel, stoking global inflation. — AFP
