Oil Price Too High, Should Be Near $100, Kuwaiti Minister Says

Bloomberg reports: Oil prices above $100 a barrel are too high and causing inflation in oil-producing countries, said the finance minister of Kuwait, OPEC's fourth-largest oil producer.

``I think it's high,'' Finance Minister Mustafa Al-Shimali said in an interview in Isfahan, Iran, today. A reasonable oil price would be ``more or less $100,'' he said.

Oil prices have doubled over the past year and reached a record $139.89 a barrel in New York yesterday. Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, has called a meeting in Jeddah on June 22 to help stabilize prices. Crude oil fell 2.7 percent last week as Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi described the surge in the commodity as ``unjustified'' and called for the meeting between producers, major industrial consuming nations and banks.

``I would like to see these prices go down and in parallel also have the price of goods we import go down,'' Kuwait's al- Shimali said.

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