India’s oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Wednesday that rising oil prices are hitting demand and hurting the fragile global economic recovery and urged the OPEC+ to ease production cuts, as reported by Reuters.
“High oil prices may add to inflationary pressure,” Pradhan added and noted that high oil prices also impact the demand growth in developing countries. “The demand recovery will take primacy over crude prices at least over the next few months,” the minister further argued.
Market reaction
The barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), which touched a fresh 13-month high of $61.23 earlier in the session, inched slightly lower after these comments and was last seen gaining 1.35% on the day at $60.93.