Oil prices continue to fall on Tuesday. Weak data from China is raising fears of a decline in demand for crude oil.

After oil prices were unable to find a clear direction yesterday, the price of US WTI crude fell below the mark of $80 per barrel in early trading today. This is the lowest level since the end of August. While no clear trend was discernible yesterday, the price of WTI oil now appears to be stabilising below $80 for the time being. The price is currently down around 1.75% at $79.35. The situation is similar for North Sea Brent crude. The price of Brent is currently down by around 1.80% and is trading at $83.60 per barrel.

Data on the Chinese trade balance in particular is having a negative impact on oil prices. While analysts expected exports from China to fall by 3.3% in October, the figure now published was almost twice as high at 6.4%. This reinforces fears that demand for oil from one of the most important oil-importing countries could fall significantly. In addition, the interest rate hike in Australia is also contributing to the pressure on oil prices. This is fuelling concerns that central banks around the world have not yet reached the end of their interest rate hikes. This could have a negative impact on the global economy and therefore also on the demand for oil.

However, it remains to be seen how the member states of OPEC+ will react to the fall in prices. As is well known, they want to keep the oil price above the mark of $80 per barrel. To this end, they had already agreed at their last meeting to reduce production by around 1.39 million barrels in 2024.

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