What the fresh march higher in oil means for world markets
The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday described an "adverse scenario" in which an escalation of conflict in the Middle East would lead to a 15% jump in oil prices and higher shipping costs that would hike global inflation by about 0.7 percentage points. The tightness in oil supplies, and higher prices, has been underpinned by oil producing group OPEC and other big oil producers curbing their output.