SAUDI Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, joined other members from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in saying the group should maintain current production to meet demand during the Northern Hemisphere winter.

GERMANY’S unsatisfactory election outcome will damage its economic prospects and may force the ECB to leave interest rates unchanged until 2007.

OPEC may decide to increase its oil production in a meeting this week.

OPEC, the producer of more than a third of the world’s oil, has moved to abandon its price targets because its member countries can do nothing to drive prices lower than nearly $50 a barrel.