Ecuador news

The price of Texas intermediate oil (WTI) It opened this Thursday with a drop of 0.52%, to $78.72 per barrel, after learning that the drop in interest rates in the US will have to wait.

At 9:04 local time (14:04 GMT), WTI futures contracts for delivery in April lost 41 cents compared to the close of the previous session.

This Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve (Fed) predicted in its Beige Book of economic outlook that in the coming months there will be “less restrictive financial conditions”, an indication that interest rates could fall before the end of the year, but not in this first half.

“The outlook for future economic growth remained generally positive” and “expectations of stronger demand and less restrictive financial conditions were observed over the next 6 to 12 months,” states the text published yesterday.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the European Central Bank (ECB) has met expectations and has kept interest rates at 4.5% for the fourth consecutive time, its highest level since 2001, while lowering its inflation forecasts in the eurozone, which will reach the 2% target. in 2025.

On the other hand, today it was learned that the foreign trade of China – the second largest consumer of oil in the world – increased by 8.7% year-on-year in the first two months: exports grew by 10.3% and imports by 6.7%, according to data from the General Customs Administration. EFE (I)

The price of Texas intermediate oil (WTI) It opened this Tuesday with a drop of 0.85%, to $78.07 a barrel, thus continuing Monday’s trend.

At 9:03 local time (14:03 GMT), WTI futures contracts for delivery in April were down $0.67 compared to the close of the previous session.

The oil market has been slowly gaining bullish momentum in recent weeks and WTI futures gained a solid 4.23% last week, but yesterday crude oil broke that trend and dropped 1.54%.

Over the weekend, some countries in the OPEC+ alliance, led by Saudi Arabia y Russiaas Irak y United Arab Emiratesannounced that they are prolonging the voluntary reduction in oil production in the second quarter of this year, as Kazakhstan and Russia have already announced.

“This was disappointing compared to some more bullish expectations that the oil producers group could announce a longer extension of the production cap, such as until the end of 2024.”says Tom Essaye today in his report The Sevens Report

Regarding the demand, China -the largest crude oil importer in the world- today set the growth target for its gross domestic product (GDP) for the current year at “around 5%”, revealed the country’s prime minister, Li Qiangduring the inauguration of the annual session of the National Assembly Popular. EFE (I)