Oil edged toward $49 a barrel in a narrow range on Wednesday, supported partly by expectations of a recovery in economic growth this year in China, the world's second-biggest energy consumer. U.S. crude for June delivery rose 3 cents to $48.58 a barrel at 1038 GMT, off a session low of $48.02 and a session high of $49.09. London Brent crude rose 5 cents to $49.87 a barrel. China's central bank has predicted a recovery in economic growth this year, despite the country's gross domestic product slowing in the first quarter to 6.1 percent from a year earlier, the lowest rate on record. Goldman Sachs has raised its forecast for China GDP growth this year to 8.3 percent from 6.0 percent. Despite this optimism over China's outlook, demand for oil remains weak, illustrated by the latest import data from Japan and South Korea. "Arguably the biggest uncertainty in the oil market at the moment is the economy," Lawrence Eagles, oil analyst at JP Morgan said in a research note. "But even assuming a tentative second-half 2009 recovery, some of the latest bleak demand data suggest that without a further OPEC cut, we may not see a significant stock draw until 4Q09." The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is concerned about the oversupply, Libya's top oil official said. "We are worried about the overhang," Shokri Ghanem, chairman of Libya's National Oil Corp., told Reuters. OPEC meets next on May 28. ECONOMIC FORECASTS The International Monetary Fund looks set to cut its global economic forecasts in the coming week. "The forecast that we will present this week will be worse than the previous one," Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF's managing director, told Germany's Handelsblatt in an interview. Oil has fallen around $100 a barrel since a record above $147 hit in July last year, but has risen more than 40 percent since mid-February, partly because of signs of compliance by OPEC members over agreed supply cuts. Since then, it has traded in a narrow band, with few convincing signs of a sustained demand recovery.

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