• Financial

Global fuel prices have reached a 15-month low

  • Financial
  • 21 March, 2023 09:44:36

Photo: Collected

International Desk: Restlessness in the banking sector around the world and a possible increase in US interest rates have raised fears of a global recession. As a result, the demand for fuel is also expected to decrease. Due to these concerns, the price of fuel in the global market reached the lowest level in the last 15 months on Monday. The price of Brent crude futures for May crude oil fell 2.8 percent to 70.90 dollars per barrel on Monday in a volatile market. The US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) April crude oil price also fell by $1.88. As a result, the price of this oil decreased to 64.86 dollars per barrel.

Brent and WTI prices hit their lowest levels since December 2021 on Monday, British news agency Reuters said. WTI prices fell below $65 per barrel. Both benchmarks Brent and WTI fell as the banking crisis deepened. Oil prices hit record lows after Credit Suisse, Switzerland's second-largest bank, reached a historic deal to buy UBS, another major bank. But banking stocks and bonds fell on Monday amid signs that bank investor confidence is fragile.

After the deal was announced, the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and other major central banks pledged to boost market liquidity and support other banks at risk. National Australia Bank head of commodity research Baden Moore said the market's focus was now on banking sector volatility and the possibility of a US Federal Reserve rate hike. The US Federal Reserve Bank is expected to raise interest rates by 25 basis points on March 22, despite recent banking sector turmoil, according to most economists polled by Reuters.

In such a situation, the executives of some banks in different countries of the world have called on the central bank to stop the strict implementation of monetary policy for the time being. However, they advised to be prepared for interest rate hikes later. Meanwhile, the world's top oil exporters, OPEC and its allied producers, known as OPEC Plus, are scheduled to hold a ministerial meeting on April 3. Earlier, in October, members of the alliance agreed to cut their oil production target by 2 million barrels per day by the end of this year.

 

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