Gas prices won't hurt growth, San Francisco Fed report says

  • 06/02/2001

  • Asian Wall Street Journal (Hong Kong)

Surging natural-gas prices in the Western U.S. are boosting utility bills by 60% or more and forcing some energy-intensive industries or curtail or even shut down production. But a surprisingly optimistic new analysis by the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank concludes that the run-up in prices won't have a significant impact on the region's economic growth rates.