The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) revised up its 2023 global economic growth forecast by 0.1 percentage points to 2.9%, according to its monthly report released on Wednesday. The 2024 global economic growth projections were left unchanged at 2.6%. The United States gross domestic product (GDP) growth is anticipated to stand at 2.4% in 2023, and 1% in 2024, up 0.1 percentage points from previous estimates. The euro area GDP growth prospects were left unchanged at 0.2% for 2023 and 0.5% for 2024. China’s 2023 economic growth forecast also remained the same at 5.2% for 2023, and 4.8% for the next year. Russia’s economy is expected to grow by 2.2% this year, and 1.3% in 2024, up 0.3 percentage points and 0.1 percentage points from the previous estimates, respectively.
“Near-term support for global economic growth may arise from a less pronounced inflationary environment, enabling major central banks to consider relatively more accommodative monetary policies … A potentially more robust growth trajectory in China, supported by further government-led stimulus measures, has the potential to support global economic growth in the near term,” it was noted in the report.
EIA: US crude inventories down by 4.3 million barrels
Commercial crude oil inventories in the United States, not considering those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), decreased by 4.3 million barrels to 440.8 million barrels in the week ending December 8, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) stated in its report published on Wednesday.
Oil refinery inputs averaged 16.1 million barrels per day (bpd) during the week ending December 8, falling by 104,000 bpd compared to the previous week’s average. Refineries operated at 90.2% of their operable capacity. Meanwhile, gasoline production increased and averaged 9.5 million bpd. Crude oil imports decreased by 1 million bpd week-on-week to average 6.5 million bpd. Total commercial petroleum inventories decreased by 10 million barrels last week.