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Recession woes slash forecast for oil demand
14 Apr 2009Oil slipped back below $50 a barrel today on concerns of a further fall in demand as the recession bites.
Crude fell 2.88 cents to $49.36 in New York and $2.44 cents to $51.62 in London after the International Energy Agency slashed its demand forecast for the year.
Demand would fall by 2.4 million barrels a day this year from 2008 to 83.4 million as the rate of decline in fuel consumption reached levels last seen in the early 1980s.
"The IEA report is a wake-up call of sorts," said risk manager Tony Nunan of Mitsubishi.
"But this is a two-tiered market - one that's weak in the short term due to collapsing demand, but stronger in the medium term based on the belief that all the stimulus packages will probably get the economy out of its funk by year-end," he said.
Oil prices hit a high of $147 a barrel last July but have been stuck in a range of $47 to $54 for the past four weeks.
