ALGIERS (Reuters) - World oil prices could recover to $60 per barrel by the end of the year if demand in the global economy picks up, OPEC Secretary General Abdullah al-Badri told Reuters in an interview on Sunday.

He said now was too soon to judge if fresh output cuts would be needed when OPEC holds its next meeting on May 28, and said it would take at least until the end of this year for inventories of stockpiled oil to return to normal levels.

But al-Badri said there was a glimmer of hope of an economic recovery and described as exaggerated an International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast earlier this month that oil demand in 2009 would be sharply lower than previously expected.

Asked to predict what will happen to the price of oil -- currently around $51 per barrel -- al-Badri said: “I think it will be $60 odd by the end of the year if we see some change on the demand side.”

“We are seeing at this time a glimmer of hope of recovery. If that’s the case I’m sure demand will be up,” he told Reuters during a visit to OPEC member Algeria.

STUDYING WORLD ECONOMY

OPEC -- or the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries -- will meet next month to decide if further output cuts are needed to lift an oil price that has fallen by two-thirds in the past 9 months as the global slump has depressed demand for fuel.

The OPEC official said the organization would base its decision on how well members, who pump over a third of the world’s oil, were complying with previously agreed output cuts, and on an analysis of the state of the world economy.

“If there is a real recovery then we will see more improvement in the coming month, then we will decide at that time but .. it is really difficult to judge right now at this time,” he told Reuters.

Balance would be restored to the world oil market but “not before the end of this year,” al-Badri said.

Asked how fast the stockpiles of oil, which include millions of barrels of crude being stored on tanker vessels, will come down, al-Badri said: “Slowly. I don’t think they will come down very quickly. We are working on that.”

He said the target was to reduce inventories from their level now of 60 days of forward cover to 52 days. “We have to work hard and then, before the end of this year (this can be achieved),” al-Badri said.

Commenting on the IEA’s prediction earlier this month that world oil demand will dive by 2.4 million barrels per day in 2009 because of the impact of prolonged recession, al-Badri said: “It is just an exaggerated number.”

He also expressed skepticism about calls from some energy consumers for OPEC, instead of shoring up the oil price, to let it fall further to stimulate economic recovery.

“We already contributed more than 50 percent of our income to stimulate demand ... So what other stimulus do you want from us?” he said.

“Some of our member countries, not all of them, a few of them, their cost to produce a barrel of oil is more than $30.”