Quoting a draft of the IMF’s World Economic Outlook, which is due to be published for a meeting of April 12-13, ANSA said the IMF considered the dollar “rather strong” despite recent depreciation and that it expected a crude prices to be around $95 in 2008 and 2009.

The draft noted that since the start of 2002 the dollar had “depreciated by around 25 per cent in real terms, in one of the most consistent instances of devaluation since Bretton Woods” and that it had “approached medium term equilibrium but remains rather strong”.

It backed the European Central Bank’s interest rate stance. “The ECB is rightly holding interest rates stable for now,” it said, adding the ECB “should be ready to respond in a flexible manner if downward risks to growth and inflation growth intensify.” ANSA said the draft saw global economic growth of 4.2 per cent in 2008, that is slightly above its last forecast of 4.1 per cent made in January but still well below 2007’s 4.9 per cent. It confirmed its estimate for 2008 US growth of 1.5 per cent.