The International Energy Agency is concerned that the preferred oil price level of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is creeping steadily higher, and that this could harm the world economy, said the head of the agency's oil industry and markets division David Fyfe Friday.

"There seems to have been a gradual ratcheting up of break-even prices within the OPEC community," said Fyfe.

The break-even is the price at which oil revenues in OPEC countries match government spending. Some governments of OPEC member states, notably Saudi Arabia , have recently raised government spending in an effort to pre-empt popular unrest that has toppled governments in Tunisia and Egypt .

For much of the previous year, OPEC members said a fair price range for crude oil was between $70 and $80 a barrel. That number now appears to have risen to around $95 a barrel, said Fyfe at the Platts Crude Oil Markets conference in London .

The IEA has warned repeatedly that current high oil prices could hurt the global economic recovery. "The risks to the global economy are still skewed to the downside," Fyfe said.
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