Oil prices have continued to slide for a third consecutive day, with Brent prices falling beyond one per cent to $103.34 overnight. This puts them on track for their first weekly loss in three weeks.
Concerns over widespread disruption to Saudi Arabian oil supplies have eased, despite fresh strikes exchanged across the border between Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis and Saudi Arabia on Thursday. Markets have largely disregarded fears that these attacks will choke off supply from the world's second-biggest oil producer.
Earlier this week, prices had climbed to near four-month highs after the group struck Saudi oil facilities, leading Riyadh to cancel some deliveries to Europe due to damage to its East-West pipeline last week.
Globally, rising oil prices have fuelled inflationary concerns. The Bank of Japan raised interest rates to a 31-year high on Friday, signalling a readiness to continue increasing borrowing costs to manage inflation driven by recent oil cost spikes. This move, however, did not support the yen, which slumped.
In the UK, the Bank of England held interest rates yesterday and paused its bond selling programme, which led to lower UK government borrowing costs after a recent spike.