Ministers from OECD countries last week expressed optimism about prospects for the world economy, with continued strong growth and moderate inflation, but warned that further rises in energy prices could pose a significant risk. OECD ministers expect the buoyant pace of world growth witnessed in the past few years to be sustained in the near future.
Their comments echoed the OECD's twiceyearly Economic Outlook released last week, which painted a broadly positive picture of growth prospects while sounding a warning over future energy price rises and current-account imbalances. OECD ministers observed that inflation was likely to remain under control, despite shrinking spare capacity and higher commodity prices, this being so because heightened international competition would help contain prices.