WASHINGTON: Oil prices slightly climbed up on Thursday ahead of weekly U.S. stocks data, despite fresh signs of an economic slowdown in China and Japan.
Crude oil prices have fallen more than 3 percent this week on persistent worries over global demand and a supply glut.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 rose 15 cents to $47.73 per barrel. U.S. crude futures CLc1 were up 30 cents at $44.45 a barrel.
Japan’s core machinery orders fell 3.6 percent in July, data showed on Thursday, much worse than a 3.7 percent increase expected by economists.
In Asia’s biggest economy, China, the producer price index fell 5.9 percent in August from the same period last year, its 42nd consecutive month of decline and the biggest drop since the depths of the global financial crisis in late 2009.
ANZ bank said global growth for 2016 and 2017 would hold around 3.5 percent, revised down from the 4 percent it had previously forecast.
Oil prices have fallen over 50 percent since June 2014 as soaring output clashed with slowing economies in Asia, the main growth engine for commodities in recent years.
The fall was compounded after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, decided last November to keep output high to defend market share.
