Lowest paid worried about high oil price - Breaking News - Business - Breaking News

The nation's lowest paid workers are growing increasingly concerned about petrol prices amid signs business is struggling to cope with high transport costs.
The latest Sensis Consumer Report showed a big fall in consumer confidence during the past three months, with both high fuel prices and increasing interest rates rocking shoppers.
Petrol prices, which are now at an all-time record national average of more than $1.37 a litre, jumped from the third biggest concern of consumers to first.
The cost of fuel is now a bigger concern than other issues such as terrorism, crime, the state of the environment or the increased cost of living.
But it also found a person's concern about petrol depended on their pay packet.
For people earning more than $85,000 the single biggest concern was high interest rates, but for those earning less than $85,000 a year petrol was at the top of the list.
The most concerned about petrol were people earning less than $35,000 - those least likely to be able to afford any sharp increase in petrol prices.
Business is also hurting, with the National Australia Bank's latest survey showing a drop in business conditions and confidence during May.
NAB chief economist Alan Oster said while the May interest rate rise had hurt confidence, businesses were also being squeezed by petrol price hikes.
"There is evidence of a continuing depressing effect on sales from high oil prices," he said.
International Monetary Fund managing director Rodrigo de Rato used a major speech to the National Press Club to hammer home the problem oil posed to the global economy.
He said oil prices were up with avian flu and global economic imbalances in terms of the threat they posed.
Mr de Rota said one of the problems was the way the energy system in some countries was an extension of the government.
Government priorities, rather than market forces, were driving important elements of the overall oil industry.
"You don't have market forces determining investment in some countries, and there is some tendency to increase political intervention and the state role in some countries," he said.
"And you have more than one example of oil companies (that) are not extremely efficient."
Mr de Rota said another problem lay with oil consuming countries that had failed to sink cash into refining capacity.
He said in Asia particularly, the use of oil subsidies by some countries was a problem.
"You have to face in many emerging countries and low income countries, the need to shift from subsidies to direct social targeting, so we abandon over time a very inefficient social policy and very ineffective economic policy which is subsidies, to more efficient social policy and more transparent economic policy," he said.
© 2006 AAP