High Energy Costs Slow Economic Growth: Greenspan

Former US Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Wednesday that high energy costs were beginning to slow economic growth although the US has so far been able to absorb sharp increases in oil prices.

In his first appearance before the US Congress since he left the US Fed earlier this year, Greenspan said "recent data indicate we may finally be experiencing some impact" from the high oil prices.

But he also said that significantly higher oil prices have not produced any "serious erosion" of world economic activity.

"The United States, especially, has been able to absorb the huge implicit tax of rising oil prices so far," Greenspan told a hearing in the Foreign Relations Committee of the US Senate.