No end to oil price rises?

13 March 2008

There has been a steady rise in oil prices over the course of the week, with yesterday's trading being the fifth consecutive increase in the value of the commodity.

Oil prices peaked close to the $110 (€70.60) mark this week, with many economists linking the fall in the value of the US dollar to the rocketing values of crude oil, Bloomberg reports.

Yesterday, oil prices dropped from the new record high of $109.72 to reach $108.87 a barrel, coinciding with a new all-time high for the Euro against the dollar.

Frank Verrastro, the director of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, stated: "People are looking at the oil market as a safe place to park their money in this time of economic uncertainty. The end users of oil are not major participants in this market."

He added that the weakening dollar "has a lot to do with the rise in prices".

Calls from the US for the Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries to alter its input have not yet been heeded by the oil cartel.

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