Opec crude oil prices go down to 108 dollars

According to monthly OPEC bulletin, the  OPEC Reference Basket jumped sharply higher in the first days of July, peaking at $140.73 with US dollar weakness and geopolitical tensions dominated the upward trend.
However, the sentiment eased over the course of the month with concern over slower demand growth amid weak economy signals helping the Basket to fall $13.55 or almost 10% lower. In August, the weaker economic outlook indicating lower demand as well as a recovery in the US dollar and high OPEC oil exports helped calm the market. Although the uptrend revived following recent supply disruptions in the Caucasus, the momentum was short-lived as speculative funds continued to exit the crude oil futures market.
This helped the Basket to plunge to a three-month low of $109/b on 12 August. The world economy is seen to grow at 3.9% this year, 0.1% down on last month’s forecast and around 1.0% lower than in
2007. For 2009, the forecast of 3.8% is also 0.1% lower than last month’s, mainly due to downward revisions made to all major OECD regions.
In contrast, Developing Countries’ growth in 2009 is unchanged at 5.6%. For 2009, India’s growth was revised up 0.2 pp to 7.7% while China’s is unchanged at 9.2%. US economic expansion next year is now projected at 1.3%, down 0.3pp from the previous month, but still higher than the prospect of 1.1% growth in Japan and the Euro-zone.