The World at $100 a Barrel

Oil prices have surged again, and investment bank Goldman Sachs thinks they have the potential to spike to near $100 a barrel by the end of summer unless Middle East production increases. How would a rise to, say, $95 a barrel affect the global economy? Some key take-aways from a new analysis by the bank:

1) The firm’s research suggests such a jump would reduce world economic growth by 0.3 percent over one year, from 4.5 percent to 4.2 percent.


2) Given that the global economy was resilient to the rapid 60 percent rise in oil prices in the first half of last year, a spike of a lesser magnitude from here is unlikely to cause a notable downturn.

3) Unless the price hike is sustained