Opec weighs price hikes pinned directly to inflation

Leading OPEC members held a top-secret strategy session Thursday to debate a long-term plan that would automatically adjust prices every three months in line with inflation and economic growth in oil-consuming countries. The plan would also downgrade the role of the dollar in oil pricing calculations and instead use a "market basket" of a dozen major currencies. This session of five oil ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, plus a representative from Iran, "could be far more important to the future of the world economy than all the regular oil pricing conferences put together," the Guardian newspaper observed.