There’s something slick about the price of oil

I AM not an economist, but I am fairly handy at sums. Consider the following.

December ’07: Oil costs $95 a barrel. Exchange rate: $1.25 to €1.

Result: €76 a barrel of oil.

March ’08: Oil costs $115 a barrel.

Exchange rate: $1.6 to €1.

Result: €71.88 a barrel of oil.

So how do we in the eurozone claim that the price of oil is going up? Is this softening us up for a completely unjustified rise in the cost of petrol and home heating oil, not to mention airline charges, or is it just one string in talking down the economy?

Brendan Casserly

Abbeybridge

Waterfall

Co Cork