Kuwaiti crude price drops to USD 105.73 pb  

(MENAFN - Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) The price of Kuwaiti crude oil plummeted by USD 47 cents to USD 105.73 pb on Thursday from USD 106.20 pb the day before, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) said Friday.

The retreat comes on the background of European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi's comment about recovery of the Eurozone economies.

The ECB on Thursday predicted that the 17-nation economy will shrink 0.5 percent this year, more than the 0.3 percent contraction forecast three months ago. The forecast for next year was cut to 1 percent from 1.2 percent. The bank also lowered its 2014 inflation projection to 1.3 percent from 1.4 percent.

While risks to the economic outlook were on the downside, risks to the inflation outlook remained "broadly balanced", Draghi said.
Draghi added that ECB's interest rate will continue at its low benchmark of 0.75 percent.

"Later in 2013 economic activity should gradually recover, supported by a strengthening global backdrop and our accommodative monetary policy stance," Draghi said in Frankfurt after the ECB left its benchmark interest rate at 0.75 percent, a record low.