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1st LD Writethru: Oil prices plunge ahead of OPEC meeting

Xinhua, June 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

Oil prices dived Thursday amid no sign that Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would cut output quota at Friday's meeting.

OPEC maintained it output quota of 30 million barrels per day at its November meeting, which accounts for around 40 percent of the global crude output.

The cartel's output in May increased to more than 31 million barrels per day, according to the estimate of Bloomberg.

The market also retreated as the International Monetary Fund ( IMF) cut the 2015 economic growth forecast for U.S., the top oil consumer, down to 2.5 percent from its April prediction of 3.1 percent.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde said Thursday that the revised-down forecast was largely due to the soft performance in the first quarter. The U.S. economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.7 percent in the first quarter, marking the third quarterly contraction after the financial crisis ended in mid-2009.

Light, sweet crude for July delivery moved down 1.64 U.S. dollars to settle at 58 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for July delivery dropped 1. 77 dollars to close at 62.03 dollars a barrel. Endite