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UK Prime Minister says oil prices are too high
Published on February 16, 2010 by oilprices · No CommentsUK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday that oil prices were too high on the eve of data expected to show that UK annual inflation has soared on the back of rising crude costs.
‘I certainly believe the price of oil is too high at the moment, and I would like to see us working together to keep the oil price down,’ Mr Brown told a local BBC radio station. He added that he was ‘determined to keep the price down as much as possible’ but did not specify how he would seek to do this.
Annual inflation in recession hit Britain had surged to 2.9 per cent in December, partly due to higher crude costs and changes in taxation levels, official data showed last month.
The Office for National Statistics has just announced that consumer price inflation rose 3.5% in January 2010. That was the highest rate since November 2008, while the increase from December of 0.6 percentage points was the second largest month-to-month annual inflation increase since records began in 1996. Higher oil prices increase the cost of petrol and heating fuel for consumers.
World oil prices are trading between $70 to $80 after experiencing great volatility in the second half of 2008, when they went from a record high of $147 a barrel to just $32 in the space of about six months.