OREANDA-NEWS. The cost of the nearest futures for Brent crude oil on the London ICE exchange fell 3.61%, to $ 28.96 per barrel as of 10:29 Moscow time. This is evidenced by trading data. Oil prices are falling on fears of a deeper drop in demand for raw materials, said Uralsib analyst Konstantin Chernyshev. The OPEC + agreement to reduce oil production could not improve sentiment in the commodity market.

Earlier, the International Monetary Fund published a forecast according to which this year due to a global stoppage of business due to an epidemic, global GDP will fall by 3%. Three months ago, the IMF had forecast growth of 3.3%. In the USA, the fall in GDP will be 5.9%, in the eurozone - 7.5%, in Russia - 5.5%.

In addition to a sharp decline in the forecast for the global economy, pressure on oil prices was exerted by news about Saudi Arabia's plans to continue selling its oil at a discount. Negative added to the market data from the American Petroleum Institute (API), according to which oil reserves in the US for the week jumped 13 million barrels, with expectations for growth of 11 million barrels.