* IMF set for sharp cuts in global growth forecasts
* New front-month March U.S. crude contract slips
* February contract expires up 6 percent on short-covering
* Focus on bearish demand; U.S. crude stocks data seen up
(Updates prices, PVS SINGAPORE)
LONDON, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Oil eased below $41 a barrel on
Wednesday, as further evidence emerged of a deepening global
slowdown that is crushing demand for fuel.
U.S. light crude for March delivery <CLc1> dropped 30 cents
to $40.54 a barrel by 0834 GMT on its first day as the new front
month contract.
The February contract, which expired on Tuesday, settled up
$2.23, or about 6 percent, at $38.74 a barrel, on short-covering.
London Brent crude <LCOc1> eased 20 cents to $43.40 a barrel.
"Weakness in oil consumption continues to weigh on the oil
price," the Commonwealth Bank of Australia said in its daily
commodity report.
The International Monetary Fund is set to sharply cut growth
forecasts this month and the world will not return to strong
growth for two to three years, IMF Managing-Director Dominique
Strauss-Kahn said on Wednesday. []
The International Energy Agency (IEA), a leading energy
watchdog, last week joined the ranks of forecasters predicting a
fall in global oil demand this year in light of the slowing
economic outlook. The IEA sees demand falling by 500,000 barrels
per day (bpd) in 2009 to 85.3 million bpd. []
Oil has plunged from record highs above $147 a barrel in
July as the deepening global slowdown has slashed oil
consumption, prompting the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC) to agree to a series of output cuts.
OPEC is fully enforcing its deepest ever oil supply curbs,
whichh should be enough to boost prices, the group's president,
Angolan oil minister Botelho de Vasconcelos, told Reuters on
Tuesday. []
But prices remain at levels not seen since 2004.
China, one engine in the six-year commodity price rally that
started in 2002, was expected to release fourth-quarter GDP data
this week that economists say will show 7.0 percent growth, the
slowest pace of expansion in nearly a decade for the world's
third-biggest economy. []
A Reuters poll of analysts forecast that crude oil stocks in
the United States, the world's biggest consumer, rose by 1.4
million barrels last week, with distillate stocks seen down 1.4
million barrels due to cold winter weather.
Gasoline stocks would be up 2.1 million barrels, up 5.1
million barrels from a year ago.
Data will be released on Thursday, a day later than usual,
following the U.S. holiday on Monday honoring civil rights
leader Martin Luther King Jr. []
(Additional reporting by Maryelle Demongeot in Singapore;
Editing by Peg Mackey)
