A late afternoon rally by the dollar pushed oil prices down to near $78 a barrel as investors weighed key economic data to determine the future direction of the dollar as well as demand for energy in the coming months. The International Energy Agency expects demand for crude to increase next year as the need in emerging countries including China and India rises, while demand in developed countries is expected to remain close to current levels.
“OECD demand will be almost flat, so the increase will come mainly from emerging economies, which account for a little less than half of total global demand,” said Nobuo Tanaka, the group’s executive director in an interview in Singapore.
