Article: Opec's oil price party ends as the world economy trembles: the verdict on the impact of the summer financial shock will be delivered in September, Opec is already anticipating slower growth and lower oil demand and prices.(THE LAST WORD: EDMUND O'SULLIVAN)

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Mohammad Alipour-Jeddi, head of Opec's market analysis department, was ruminating at the annual meeting in Vienna of the Japan Co-operation Centre for the Middle East on why economists have been so wrong about oil price trends since 2003.

The pattern of dodgy forecasts continues. Alipour-Jeddi questioned the recent International Energy Agency (IEA) projection that world demand will increase by 2.2 million barrels a day (b/d) in 2008.

This is a bad time for the gloomy profession. Economists failed to predict the doubling in oil prices in the past four years and were startled when world growth did not drop in the aftermath. ...

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