Oil slides more than 1% as Chinese GDP dents demand hopes
By Alex Lawler
LONDON (Reuters) -Oil prices dropped by more than 1% on Monday after weaker than expected Chinese economic growth fuelled concern over demand in the world's second-biggest oil consumer while a partial restart of halted Libyan output also pressured.
China's gross domestic product (GDP) grew 6.3% year on year in the second quarter, compared with analyst forecasts of 7.3%, with its post-pandemic recovery faltering rapidly owing to weakening demand at home and abroad.
Chinese authorities face a daunting task trying to keep the economic recovery on track, with growth having slowed by 0.8% from the previous quarter, National Bureau of Statistics figures showed.
«The GDP came in below expectations, so will do little to ease concerns over the Chinese economy,» said Warren Patterson, ING's head of commodities research.
Brent crude fell $1.12, or 1.4%, to $78.75 a barrel by 0810 GMT and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude dropped by $1.09, or 1.5%, to $74.33 on a second straight day of losses for both contracts.
Both benchmarks had notched three weeks of gains and touched their highest since April last week, finding support from OPEC+ output curbs and unplanned outages in Libya and Nigeria.
Oil also came under pressure on Monday from the resumption of output at two of the three Libyan fields that were shut last week. Output had been halted by a protest against the abduction of a former finance minister.
In another sign of tighter supplies, Russian oil exports from western ports are set to fall by 100,000-200,000 bpd next month, a sign that Moscow is making good on a pledge for supply cuts in tandem with Saudi Arabia, two sources said on Friday.
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