Global oil prices have fallen again amid worries about slow global growth and reports that key oil producers want to maintain current output levels.
Brent crude fell to a near four-year low of $87.74 a barrel earlier, before recovering some ground to $88.46.
US light crude oil was down $0.93 at $84.76, close to a two-year low.
Weak economic growth will cut demand for oil. In addition, Reuters reported that Saudi Arabia had indicated it could cope with lower prices.
The gloomy growth outlook weighed on stock markets at the start of trading on Monday, although shares then recovered and the UK’s FTSE 100 index was 0.4% higher at 6,366.24. In New York, the Dow Jones opened 13 points higher at 16,556.75.
Last week, the International Monetary Fund shaved its forecast for global growth for this year from 3.4% to 3.3%.
It said overall global growth would be held back by weakness in Japan, Latin America and Europe, with any recovery in the advanced economies “weak and uneven”.
Share values have been falling recently, with some analysts arguing they are catching up with economic reality.
Several times this year the UK’s FTSE 100 index came close to topping its all time high of 6,930.2, last reached at the end of December 1999. However, since the start of September the FTSE 100 index has lost 10%.
Alastair McCaig, market analyst at City watchers IG, said: “Just over a month ago expectations that the FTSE could break above the 7,000 level were the norm, with the index trading less than 100 points away.
Related Posts
Dominica to implement measures to cushion impact of Middle East war on local economy
Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit shared that we are exposed to the economic…
