The downward trend shows no signs of slowing down.

World oil prices

Oil prices ended the week down more than 1% as the market balanced supply concerns with renewed economic worries in the US and China.

Brent crude for July delivery fell 81 cents, or 1.1%, to $74.17 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell 83 cents, or 1.2%, to $70.04 a barrel.

Both oil benchmarks fell about 1.5% from the previous week. With this week’s decline, both Brent and WTI marked their fourth consecutive weekly decline.

The dollar held modest gains against the euro, heading for its biggest weekly gain since February as uncertainty over the U.S. debt ceiling and monetary policy spurred a flight to safe-haven assets, Reuters reported. A stronger dollar makes oil priced in the currency more expensive for holders of other currencies.

“The lack of confidence in the economy is leading to a flight to the safety of the dollar, while also causing pessimism about oil demand,” said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC in New York.

Reuters reported that concerns that the United States, the world's largest oil consumer, will enter a recession are growing. Negotiations on the US government 's debt ceiling have been postponed. In addition, concerns about the banking crisis have not subsided.

On May 12, US Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman said the Fed may need to raise interest rates further if inflation remains high. She also stressed that economic data this month did not convince her that price pressures were easing.

“If inflation remains high and the labor market remains tight, additional monetary policy tightening may be appropriate to achieve a sufficiently restrictive monetary policy stance that reduces inflation over time,” Bowman said in prepared remarks for a meeting at the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Germany, which will focus largely on the fallout from the recent collapse of several U.S. banks.

She expects US policy rates to remain at sufficiently restrictive levels for some time to reduce inflation and create conditions that support sustainable labor market growth.

Meanwhile, China's April consumer price data rose at a slower pace than in March, while worsening factory-gate deflation added to doubts about the country's ability to recover from Covid-19 restrictions.

The market has received some support from forecasts of an emerging supply deficit in the second half of the year, even as Iraqi Oil Minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani told Reuters he did not expect OPEC+ to decide on further production cuts at its next meeting in Vienna on June 4.

An OPEC report on Thursday said the producer group expects July-December demand for its crude to be 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) higher than previously expected.

The market also received support after US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm signaled that the country could buy oil back for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve after completing a congressionally mandated sale next month.