The International Monetary Fund (IMF) could raise its forecast for world economic growth despite the high price of oil, its chief economist said in an interview to be published on Tuesday.
"There is potential for a rise for our world growth forecasts," the director of the IMF's research department, Raghuram Rajan, told the Financial Times Deutschland newspaper.
At the end of April, the IMF predicted world gross domestic product growth of 4.6 percent this year and 4.4 percent in 2005.
Rajan warned against any over-reaction to high oil prices and called on central banks not raise interest rates too quickly to combat the effect on inflation.
"Central banks should be ready, but there is no reason to act in a rash manner," he said in remarks translated from the German.