ISLAMABAD: Oil futures posted a weekly decline of up to 3.65 percent, dipping for the third out of the last four weeks, after a flurry of central bank interest rate increases around the world heightened fears of a sharp economic slowdown. Both major global benchmarks Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) ended the week lower, with Brent dipping 3.60 percent and WTI going down by 3.65 percent. Brent, the international benchmark for two-thirds of the world’s oil, went down to $73.85 from $76.61 a barrel, showing a loss of $2.76 on a week-on-week (WoW) basis. The WTI, the main oil benchmark for North America, edged lower to $69.16 from $71.78 a barrel on a weekly basis, registering a weekly loss of $2.62. Both benchmarks made a decent weekly gain of over 2 percent in the preceding week after facing two consecutive weeks of losses. TLTP
