SINGAPORE: Oil prices recovered in Asian trade Thursday following a drop triggered by fresh economic data that highlighted global growth concerns, analysts said.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in July added a cent to $93.14 a barrel and Brent North Sea crude for July delivery increased 15 cents to $102.58 in mid-morning trade.
Both contracts closed almost $2 lower on Wednesday after the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which groups industrial economies, trimmed its forecast for 2013 world economic growth to 3.1 percent from 3.4 percent.
"Prices have ticked up a little bit. What we are seeing is normal trading in a market where everyone is trying to manage their risks," Shailaja Nair, associate editorial director for Asia at energy market information provider Platts, told AFP.
Sanjeev Gupta, who heads the Asia-Pacific oil and gas practice at Ernst and Young, said that an "uncertain economic outlook" continues to affect oil futures.
"European prospects remain as muddled as ever and Chinese growth forecasts were pared back slightly," he added.
The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday trimmed its 2013 growth estimate for China to around 7.75 percent from 8.0 percent, citing a sluggish global recovery which hurt exports, a mainstay of the world's second largest economy.
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