Oil is falling due to fears about global growth.

Investors were worried that slowing global economic growth and tighter monetary policy from central banks would make it hard for people to buy more fuel, so oil prices went down on Friday.

Brent futures for July were down 63 cents, or 0.56 percent, to $111.41 per barrel at 4.32 a.m. GMT, while WTI crude for June was down $1.36, or 1.21 percent, to $110.85 on its final day as the front-month.

The more active WTI contract fell 0.82 percent to $108.99 per barrel, according to BusinessDay.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned Asian economies to be wary of monetary tightening spillover risks.

Kenji Okamura, who is the deputy managing director of the IMF, said that Asian countries had to choose between boosting growth with more stimulus or taking it away to keep debt and inflation in check.

Even though the Bank of Japan is going against the trend of tightening money around the world, central banks in the US, UK, and Australia have recently raised interest rates.

Due to the unclear direction of demand, crude gains have been restricted this week, with Brent and WTI primarily trading in a range. Investors have been buying less risky assets because they are worried about rising inflation and more aggressive actions by the central bank.

On May 18, open interest in WTI futures dropped to 1.722 million contracts, the lowest level since July 2016.

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In a client note, SPI Asset Management MD Stephen Innes wrote, “If US growth data continues to sour, oil prices could get caught in the negative stock market feedback loop.”

According to a survey on car miles from the Federal Highway Administration, despite increasing fuel prices, Americans were getting back behind the wheel in the United States.

South Korea’s third-largest refiner, S-Oil, has stopped production at its No. 2 alkylation unit and other related processes because of an explosion at its Onsan refinery.

The stoppage, which happened after an explosion that killed one person on Thursday night, is expected to make things worse for Asia, where gasoline is already hard to come by.

According to Citi analysts, S-petrol Oil’s output is expected to be “severely impacted” in the near term, but the company might acquire alkylate to keep production going.

Meanwhile, now that more Russian barrels are available, Iran is having a harder time selling its crude.

Since the Ukraine crisis started, Iran’s crude oil exports to China have dropped because Beijing prefers heavily discounted Russian barrels. This has left about 40 million barrels of Iranian oil sitting on tankers at sea in Asia while they look for buyers.

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