Gordon Brown to warn G8 leaders of threat of second recession

Gordon Brown will today warn international leaders that sharp and unpredictable rises in oil prices risk “choking off” the global economy and pushing the world into a second recession.

At the Group of Eight summit in Italy, the Prime Minister will sound a pessimistic note about the economic outlook and suggest the limited recovery now under way is weaker than had been hoped.
Saying that the world economy is now at a “pivotal point,” Mr Brown will list economic threats that could smother any recovery.

He will warn of the risks from falling trade and investment, growing unemployment and continued problems in the banking sector.

British officials are particularly concerned about oil prices, which have fluctuated wildly in recent months. Having fallen to $33 a barrel in December, oil is now back above $60, and some analysts predict big rises ahead.

Mr Brown will try to win support for new international market rules to ban speculative trading in oil, which officials say threatens to push up prices.

“We have to ensure the oil market does not get ahead of itself and choke off the global economy,” said a British official.

Telegraph