Middle East Economic Survey

VOL. XLVIII

No 36

5-September-2005

Oil Prices Hikes In Perspective

The following is a chapter in the Trade And Development Report, 2005 published by the United Nations Conference On Trade And Development (UNCTAD) on 7 September.

After the relatively low prices seen in the first half of the 1990s, when the price of crude petroleum rarely exceeded $20/B, the price of oil began to rise in 1999 and culminated at $60/B in mid-2005. This surge in oil prices worries governments...