Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil futures pared losses after a U.S. government report showed a decline in inventories. Supplies fell 7.29 million barrels to 357.6 million in the week ended Nov. 12, the Energy Department said today in a weekly report. Inventories were forecast to be little changed from the previous week’s total of 364.9 million barrels, according to the median of 15 analyst estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. Crude oil for December delivery fell 17 cents, to $82.17 a barrel at 10:35 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil traded at $81.81 a barrel before the release of the report at 10:30 a.m. in Washington. Oil was held lower on speculation that China will raise interest rates, slowing economic growth in the world’s biggest energy-consuming country. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said in a broadcast that the cabinet is drafting measures to counter overly rapid price gains. The People’s Bank of China in October raised its benchmark interest rates for the first time since 2007 and last week boosted lenders’ reserve-requirement ratios by as much as one percentage point, seeking to tame the fastest inflation in two years. Consumer prices jumped 4.4 percent in October from a year earlier, exceeding all 28 estimates in a Bloomberg survey. The Bank of Korea yesterday increased borrowing costs after inflation surged past the central bank’s ceiling. Builders in the U.S., the second biggest energy-consuming nation, began work on fewer homes than forecast in October as the industry remained mired near the depths reached during the recession. Housing starts fell to a 519,000 annual rate, the fewest since a record low reached in April 2009 and down 12 percent from a revised 588,000 in September that was less than previously estimated, according to the Commerce Department. Work on multifamily units, which is often volatile, plunged 44 percent, swamping a 1.1 percent drop in single-family homes. --Editors: Joe Link, Charlotte Porter To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Shenk in New York at mshenk1@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net.

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