Washington, May 20: The group of seven finance ministers are certain to take up the subject of surging oil prices at a weekend meeting in New York, US treasury secretary John Snow has said. "The subject of oil will certainly come up in our overview of the macroeconomic forces that are affecting the world economy," Snow told reporters yesterday.
Snow's comments came as crude oil futures flirted with record highs, threatening to spark inflation and undermine global economic growth. "Higher oil prices are not helpful from the point of view of the 'agenda for growth.' They act like a tax reducing the disposable income that's available for other purposes," he said. "I don't want to prejudge what will come out of the pre-summit meeting, but I'm confident that that subject will certainly be on people's minds and the subject of discussions." The New York gathering of finance ministers will be to prepare for the June summit of heads of government and state at Sea Island, Georgia. Asked about the United States and the spike in gasoline prices to record levels, snow echoed president George W. Bush's statement that the government would not touch its strategic petroleum reserve in an effort to bring down prices.

"The president made it very clear," he said, adding that the reserve was created "to deal with genuine international emergencies that destabilise the global economy. This is not that case, so it's not appropriate to use this under current conditions."
Bureau Report