Oil prices edge down as global growth worries threaten demand

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Oil prices edged lower on Tuesday as concerns over global economic growth stoked fears over future demand.

International futures were down 10 cents, or 0.2 percent, at $62.64 by 0106 GMT. They closed down 0.1 percent on Monday.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $53.70 per barrel, down 0.1 percent, or 4 cents.

“Trade war concerns have reduced global growth expectations and with it comes a lower demand for energy,” said Alfonso Esparza, senior analyst, OANDA.

The International Monetary Fund trimmed its global growth forecasts on Monday and a survey showed increasing pessimism among business chiefs, highlighting the challenges facing policymakers as they tackle an array of actual or potential crises, from the U.S.-China trade war to Brexit.

Also clouding the outlook was data showing a slowdown in growth in China, the world’s second biggest economy.

However, oil prices were offered some support in the wake of recent data that indicated major exporters were beginning to curtail production.

In the United States, energy services firm Baker Hughes said that energy companies cut the number of rigs drilling for oil by 21 last week, the biggest decline in three years and taking the count down to the lowest since May, 2018 at 852.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)on Friday published a list of oil output cuts by its members and other major producers for the six months to June, an effort to boost confidence in a move designed to avoid a supply glut in 2019.

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