Oil prices slumped to 21-month low points below US$60 a barrel in the week on prospects of sliding energy demand because of a global economic slowdown, traders said.
“Demand is starting to wane quite considerably,” Robert Montesfusco at Sucden brokers said. “We are not seeing any good demand,” he added.
Fears of the sharp global downturn have intensified after the IMF on Thursday warned that advanced economies would contract next year for the first time since World War II.
The IMF said advanced economies would now shrink by 0.3 percent next year. The organization had previously predicted 0.5 percent growth.
Oil prices have plunged in recent months as a global economic slowdown dampens demand for energy worldwide, coming off record highs above US$147 in July when fears of supply disruptions had sent them rocketing.
The International Energy Agency said on Thursday it expected the price of oil to rebound above US$100 a barrel and eventually reach US$200 by 2030.
In a report on the global energy outlook, the agency said it predicted the price to average US$100 from this year to 2015.
It also predicted that in 2030 the price would stand at just above US$200, which after adjustment for projected inflation, was equivalent to more than US$120 in real dollar values.
The agency said the figures represented a major adjustment from its forecasts last year after a review of the outlook for production costs and demand.
A decline in oil prices meanwhile gained momentum on Wednesday after US figures showed US gasoline stockpiles had jumped 1.1 million barrels last week, confounding market expectations for a drop of 600,000 barrels. Crude reserves held steady, instead of rising the 1.2 million barrels forecast by analysts.
US energy demand continued to decline as Americans consumed 6.7 percent less crude in the past four weeks compared with the same period a year ago, the government data showed.
In a volatile week’s trading, oil prices soared US$6 on Tuesday to above US$70 in New York as the US currency weakened against the euro and on evidence that OPEC crude exporters were cutting production as promised, analysts said.
A weaker dollar makes oil priced in the US unit cheaper for buyers holding stronger currencies, pushing up demand.
OPEC, which pumps about 40 percent of the world’s oil, said it would cut output by 1.5 million barrels per day from last Saturday to counter falling prices.
By Friday, light sweet crude for delivery in December on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell to US$62.96 a barrel from US$64.50 a week earlier.
On London’s InterContinental Exchange, Brent North Sea crude for December slipped to US$58.80 a barrel from US$62.07.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
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