VIENNA, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- The weekly average price of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) declined to 72.68 U.S. dollars per barrel last week, the Vienna-based cartel said Monday.
Affected by U.S. economic figures as well as the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against other major currencies, international oil prices have kept dropping.
OPEC weekly average oil price has kept declining for two consecutive weeks. Its average oil price has once risen to 78.24 dollars a barrel at the first week of this month, which was followed by a continual decline to 75.38 dollars at the second week and 72.68 dollars last week.
Although the OPEC oil prices continued its downward trend last week, it only fell within a small range of 1.47 dollars, which was different from a large drop of 5.64 dollars within the five trading days of the second week of this month.
The latest figures from the U.S. Labor Department showed that the number of the U.S. initial jobless claims kept hitting its new high for three consecutive weeks over the last nine months.
Additionally, the four-week moving average of claims, on behalf of long-term trends of the job market, has risen to the highest level since last December.
At the same time, the leading index in July, which suggests the U.S. economic trend in next three to six months, has risen only 0.1 percent. The concerns on the slowdown of the U.S. economic recovery still remain.
In addition, due to the continual loose monetary policy of the European Central Bank, and the reduction in the 2011 growth forecast of the French government, the euro exchange rate against the U.S. dollar fell 0.7 percent. The stronger dollar also makes dollar-denominated crude oil becomes more expensive for overseas buyers.
The above factors have all played important roles in promoting the decline in oil prices.
