Credit Suisse Cuts Oil Price Forecasts on Slower Chinese Demand

By Stephen Cunningham.

Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Credit Suisse Group AG, Switzerland's second-biggest bank, cut its 2009 and 2010 oil price forecasts on concern over slower Chinese demand.

Next year's oil price forecast was cut to $58 a barrel from $73, while the estimate for 2010 was reduced to $78 from $98 at Credit Suisse. The forecasts are for Brent crude.

``Our oil price forecast has changed on the back of the latest set of economic data from China, which suggests a more severe economic slowdown is underway there,'' Credit Suisse analysts Tao Ly and Stuart Joyner wrote in a note today.

The bank predicts global oil demand will fall 300,000 barrels a day next year, the steepest drop since 1982.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Cunningham in London at scunningha10@bloomberg.com