Oil prices further fell on Monday in the global market due to weak demand amid an escalating trade war between the United States and China.
As per media reports, brent crude futures were down 29 cents, or 0.45 per cent, at $64.47 a barrel at 0126 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures were trading at $61.23 a barrel, down 27 cents, or 0.44 per cent.
Both contracts have lost about $10 a barrel since the start of the month as a trade war between the world’s two largest economies has intensified.
Goldman Sachs expects Brent to average $63 and WTI to average $59 for the remainder of 2025 and sees Brent averaging $58 and WTI $55 in 2026.
It sees global oil demand in the fourth quarter of 2025 rising by just 300,000 barrels per day year-on-year, “given the weak growth outlook,” analysts led by Daan Struyven said in a note, adding that the demand slowdown is expected to be the sharpest for petrochemical feedstocks.
Beijing increased its tariffs on US imports to 125 per cent on Friday, hitting back against President Donald Trump’s decision to raise duties on Chinese goods and raising the stakes in a trade war that threatens to upend global supply chains.
Trump on Saturday granted exclusions from steep tariffs on smartphones, computers, and some other electronics largely imported from China, but US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that critical technology products from China would face separate new duties along with semiconductors within the next two months.
The trade war has heightened worries that unsold exports could continue driving domestic Chinese prices down.
“Inflation data from China were a window into an economy that is not in shape for a trade fight. Consumer prices fell for a second month in a row in year-on-year terms, while producer prices chalked up their 30 per cent straight fall,” Moody’s Analytics said in a weekly note, referring to data released on April 10.
