[Asharq al-Aswat] Oil prices will rise gradually over the next five years to reach just over 70 US dollars a barrel in 2019, a bigwig at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted on Sunday.Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, Raja Al-Marzouqi, the IMF's departmental adviser on the Middle East and Central Asia, said the organization forecasts oil prices to rise to 57 dollars a barrel by next year, 65 dollars a barrel in 2016, and eventually 72 dollars in 2019.
The organization expects modest growth from the Eurozone and the global economy will help push up the prices in the coming years, but that the continued ample supplies of shale oil from the US would act as a counterbalance, keeping the price rise a modest one.
Oil prices have fallen more than 60 percent from highs of above 100 dollars per barrel in 2014 to hover at around 50 dollars per barrel this year.