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Oil Prices Just Keep Sliding

The price of oil futures continues to drop on trader worries that global demand will shrink faster than producers cut their output.
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The price of oil futures continues to drop on trader worries that global demand will shrink faster than producers cut their output.

Today’s price for Brent crude, the global benchmark, skidded to $54.57, its lowest level in 15 months and down from $85 in mid-October. The U.S. standard (West Texas Intermediate) sunk today to $46.20—nearly 40% below its price three months ago.

Oil prices have been slipping for months, thanks to a glut caused mainly by high output from U.S. shale operations and a reluctance by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to trim output.

Now traders are jittery about a general economic slowdown that will exacerbate the glut by cutting demand. Analysts are undecided about whether growth in global oil demand will slow or drop in 2019.

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