Oil heads for 5% weekly decline amid fears of US rate hikes

Oil fell for the fourth session today, Friday, heading to record its largest weekly loss in five weeks, due to fears of further raising US interest rates, which would harm fuel demand.

By 0852 GMT, Brent crude futures fell 41 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $ 81.18 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate crude futures also fell 56 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $75.16 a barrel.

According to “Reuters”, expectations of raising interest rates in the largest economy in the world and in Europe clouded the prospects for global growth, and pushed both benchmarks down by more than five percent so far this week, which is their worst decline since early February.

Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Federal Reserve (the US Central Bank), warned of a higher and possibly faster rate hike, saying that the US central bank was initially mistaken when it thought that inflation was “temporary.”

On the supply side, the US has reportedly privately urged some commodity traders to set aside concerns about shipping Russian oil, which has been capped, in an effort to shore up supply, suggesting more Russian oil may flow into the country. market.

Investors are closely watching the decline in exports from Russia, which decided to cut oil production by 500,000 barrels per day in March.