Oil mixed over growing global economic growth uncertainties

Oil prices were mixed on Tuesday as negative global economic growth forecasts raised demand concerns, while a buyout deal of the defunct Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) allayed investor concerns about the US banking system.

International benchmark Brent crude traded at $77.65 per barrel at 09.57 a.m. local time (0657 GMT), a 0.14% decrease from the closing price of $77.76 a barrel in the previous trading session.

At the same time, American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) traded at $72.95 per barrel, a 0.19% rise after the previous session closed at $72.81 a barrel.

Investors are still focused on the ongoing financial crisis in the US and the trajectory of the Chinese economy and oil demand outlook.

The World Bank said Monday that it expects global economic growth to fall to its lowest level in three decades by the end of 2030, referring to the period from now until then as the ‘lost decade.’

‘The global economy’s ‘speed limit’—the maximum long-term rate at which it can grow without sparking inflation—is set to slump to a three-decade low by 2030,’ it said in a report, Falling Long-Term Growth Prospects: Trends, Expectations, and Policies.

The bank said nearly all the economic forces that powered progress and prosperity over the last three decades were fading, forcing a decline in global potential GDP growth between 2022 and 2030.

‘These declines would be much steeper in the event of a global financial crisis or a recession,’ the World Bank warned.

Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva echoed similar fears, pointing to increasing financial stability risks while market uncertainties remain high.

Prices saw some bullish support over calming concerns about the US financial crisis after the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation announced Monday that the First Citizens Bank agreed to buy SVB’s deposits and loans, approximately $72 billion of the failed bank’s assets, at a discount of $16.5 billion.

• Silicon Valley Bank (SVB)