The price of crude oil was moving lower Friday morning amid demand concerns after today's data revealed China's economy continued to shrink amid declining import and exports.
Earlier today the IEA trimmed its 2013 oil demand growth forecast by 0.40 mbd to 90.50 mbd from the earlier 90.90 mbd, on weaker economic growth assumptions. For the year 2012, the IEA now forecasts oil demand growth of 0.90 mbd to 89.60 mbd.
Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures for September delivery, were down $1.12 to $92.24 a barrel. Yesterday oil settled flat mostly on expectation of further monetary policy easing after data from China showed a drop in Chinese consumer price inflation to a 30-month low in July.
Thursday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries maintained its 2012 world oil demand growth forecast at 0.90 mbd and said the summer driving season, the summer heat, and the continued shutdown of most of Japan's nuclear capacity supported demand growth.
This morning, the U.S. dollar was hovering near a weekly high versus the euro and the Swiss franc, while trading higher against sterling and little changed versus the yen.
In economic news from the euro zone, Germany's EU harmonized inflation came in below the preliminary estimates In July, final data released by the Federal Statistical Office showed. The harmonized index of consumer prices measured under the EU methodology, increased 1.9 percent annually in July, slightly slower than the 2 percent gain estimated earlier. In June, the inflation rate was 2 percent.
In economic news from the U.S., the export & import price indexes for July are due out at 8:30 am ET. The consensus estimates call for a 0.2 percent month-over-month decline in import prices and a 0.1 percent decline in export prices. In June, import prices and export prices were down 2.7 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively.
by RTT Staff Writer
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