Oil price to remain world’s key concerns :
Xinhua, Dubai
Russia-Ukraine conflict, oil price crash and instability in the Middle East will continue to put the world on alert in the coming year, leading U.S. economists Francis Fukuyama and Paul Krugman said here yesterday.
They made the remarks at a one-day Arab Strategy Forum focused on the economic and political outlook in 2015.
Fukuyama, a political science professor at Stanford, said he was worried about the on-going dispute between Russia and Ukraine would be a challenge for European countries.
Political uncertainty and the steep decline of Russia’s ruble currency in relation to other major global currencies were a risky mix for Moscow and its neighbors in Europe, he added.
Paul Krugman, Nobel prize Laurate for economics in 2008, agreed with Fukuyama on Russia.
He said Russian President Vladimir Putin was running out of option as Russia has already spent 80 billion U.S. dollars to defend the ruble against further devaluation.
However, with oil prices falling to a five-year low amid lower global demand and unchanged production quota by OPEC states, Russia’s state revenues are going all the way downhill, he said.
The oil price decline will also have major economic implications for economies in West, said Krugman.
The United States was a major oil importer, and low oil prices are good for the world’s biggest economy.
Xinhua, Dubai
Russia-Ukraine conflict, oil price crash and instability in the Middle East will continue to put the world on alert in the coming year, leading U.S. economists Francis Fukuyama and Paul Krugman said here yesterday.
They made the remarks at a one-day Arab Strategy Forum focused on the economic and political outlook in 2015.
Fukuyama, a political science professor at Stanford, said he was worried about the on-going dispute between Russia and Ukraine would be a challenge for European countries.
Political uncertainty and the steep decline of Russia’s ruble currency in relation to other major global currencies were a risky mix for Moscow and its neighbors in Europe, he added.
Paul Krugman, Nobel prize Laurate for economics in 2008, agreed with Fukuyama on Russia.
He said Russian President Vladimir Putin was running out of option as Russia has already spent 80 billion U.S. dollars to defend the ruble against further devaluation.
However, with oil prices falling to a five-year low amid lower global demand and unchanged production quota by OPEC states, Russia’s state revenues are going all the way downhill, he said.
The oil price decline will also have major economic implications for economies in West, said Krugman.
The United States was a major oil importer, and low oil prices are good for the world’s biggest economy.
