In remarks prepared for delivery to the opening session of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings, Summers also said rising rates of growth in developed and developing nations offered the prospect of more balanced world growth ahead."In the near term, the sharp rise in the price of oil is an important concern for consumers and businesses around the world, and has the potential to hit developing countries particularly hard," he said.

"Stability in oil markets, around reasonable long-term prices, is strongly in the mutual interest of both oil producing countries and oil consuming countries," he said, echoing similar calls by the IMF and the Group of Seven top industrial nations.