Rising oil prices, along with terrorism and the huge US account deficit, are the greatest threats to the global economy according to the findings of the International Chamber of Commerce /Ifo World Economic Survey released today.
A special section of the survey asked participating experts whether rising oil prices had had a significant impact on the operations of companies in their country and whether as a result those companies had taken any steps to improve their contribution to energy efficiency.
According to approximately 870 economists in over 80 countries who participated in the survey, companies in most Western European countries have reacted to rising oil prices with improvements in energy efficiency. This was particularly true in Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland and Belgium. The survey also concluded that the same was true to a lesser degree in Canada, the United States, New Zealand and Latin America. A positive trend to higher energy efficiency was also reported for the majority of Asian countries; in particular Japan, Thailand, China, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and South Korea.
Both South Africa and Australia have been able to offset the negative impact of increased oil prices with increased gas and coal exports, the survey found, yet companies in South Africa have still recently invested in improving their energy efficiency while most companies in Australia have not.
The survey also revealed that contributions to improved energy efficiency were so far low for the non-oil sector in CIS countries. The survey suggests that this may be due to the fact that few companies in this region have the financial resources for such investment at this time.
To view regional breakdown of responses to the questions on increased oil prices please visit:
http://www.iccwbo.org/id5869/index.html
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