U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday that there is substantial capacity across major world economies in strategic oil reserves in the event of a supply disruption.

President Barack Obama told business leaders they should not worry about inflation and said he believed oil prices would be able to “ride out” the crisis in the Middle East and North Africa and would stabilize.

Geithner and Obama spoke at the first meeting of a new panel of business leaders that the president has convened to come up with ideas to boost U.S. competitiveness and hiring.