TOKYO — Runaway oil prices will be a focus of finance ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations meeting this week in Japan who are hoping to calm global jitters about a series of looming economic problems.
Soaring crude-oil costs and rising food prices have created inflationary risks not seen in years.
Add to that the credit crunch still dragging on global growth and rattling international markets as well as persistent worries about a U.S. economic slump, and finance ministers have a long list of worries to address when they gather today for the two-day meeting in Osaka, hosted by a nation that imports nearly all of its oil.
Japanese Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga recently told reporters he wanted a “serious discussion” of global economic development, environmental changes, African development, crude-oil problems and rising food and commodities prices.
Nukaga also expressed concern about Japan’s economy, the world’s second-biggest, which he acknowledged was in a lull, with business investment and consumer spending stagnant and exports slowing because of a slump in the U.S., a key export market.
“I’m hoping for serious debates about what the G8 will do, both individually and collectively, to solve those problems,” he said about the meeting that will bring together finance ministers from the U.S., Japan, Russia, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada.
The session is one of several ministerial meetings leading up to the G8 leaders’ summit to be held July 7-9 in Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan.
Concerns that the American economy — by far the world’s largest — is sliding into a recession worsened after figures last week showed the jobless rate shot from 5 percent to 5.5 percent in May, the biggest jump in two decades.
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke — who will not be at the G8 meeting — has tried to allay such fears by saying the risk of a “substantial downturn” had waned in recent weeks.
Bernanke said recent energy-price gains have raised inflation risks and that the Fed “will strongly resist” any erosion in long-term expectations for prices — raising speculation that the Fed is prepared to raise rates.
Oil spiked to nearly $140 a barrel last week, and several Asian countries, including India, Indonesia and Malaysia, have cut fuel subsidies, raising retail prices for millions of consumers.
