Brussels, 17/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - A war in Iraq could undermine the already precarious confidence of European consumers and investors and thus tarnish the prospects of the resumption of growth in Europe, the Finance ministers and deputy ministers of the European Union acknowledged on Monday on the occasion of the European Economic forum of Salzburg, in Austria.
Italy referred to its concern regarding the consequences of a possibly drawn-out conflict, whereas Germany and Belgium warned that a rise in the price of oil together with a fall in confidence would be a burden that their countries, in which growth is slow to come, would find hard to bear. "We have already managed to resist a series of shocks. Nobody knows the consequences of a new shock", said German Deputy Finance Minister Caio Koch-Weser. According to him, the first victim of a war in Iraq would be oil, the price of which would increase.
The EU would suffer more than the United States from a rise in the price of oil, as it does not have the reserves that does the United States and because a rise in inflation would have consequences on the purchasing power of consumers, already weakened by the slow rate of growth and the rise in unemployment.