Germany’s Pfaffenbach Says Oil Prices Are Past `Pain Threshold’

German Deputy Economy Minister Bernd Pfaffenbach said oil prices have already risen beyond the “pain threshold” for the German economy and the issue will be discussed at a meeting of the world’s finance ministers later this week.

The price of crude oil, which reached a record $58.28 a barrel a week ago, is “quite clearly an economic problem, not just for Germany but for the entire global economy,” Pfaffenbach said in an interview at a trade fair in Hanover, Germany. “It’s clear that this will be a topic” at the meeting of International Monetary Fund in Washington starting April 16.