With Oil Priced in Dollars, Who’s Sorry Now?

Oil prices are up a lot this year, but the pain in the United States may be less than almost anywhere else. The dollar revival arrived just in time to blunt the impact.

By the time oil futures topped $61 on Wednesday, the price in dollars had risen 41 percent since the end of 2004. But the increase was even greater for other countries. Measured in euros, the rise was 60 percent, and it was 54 percent in either yen or pounds.

There are other factors at work, of course, but this may help to explain why European growth has been more anemic than that in other regions. It also does not help that the largest economies in the euro area, unlike Britain, are not oil producers.
International Herald Tribune