Global economic fears push oil prices down

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The price of oil fell on early trading today over fears that the global economy is slowing.

Chinese customs statistics showed that the country’s crude imports were down in June by 5.7 per cent due to planned refinery maintenance, but also because of a slowdown in manufacturing growth as the Chinese government attempts to crack down on inflation.

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While on Friday, US government data showed that its economy barely added any jobs last month.

There are also rumours that a number of Italian banks will fail the EU banking stress test this week, dragging the country into the euro crisis. Shares in UniCredit were temporarily suspended on Friday with it believed that the bank needs to raise additional capital.

As a result, at 6:59 GMT this morning, sweet crude for August was trading at $95.31 down $0.89 in the session on the New York Mercantile Exchange. August Brent crude fell $0.87 to $117.46 a barrel on the London ICE exchange.