The average price of benchmark OPEC crudes dropped below $90 a barrel for the first time in more than two years amid muted demand and ample supplies. The so-called , a weighted average of the main grades produced by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, slipped to $89.37 a barrel yesterday, the group’s Vienna-based secretariat said by e-mail today. It’s the first time their reference price has dropped below $90 since June 25, 2012. Global demand growth slowed in the second quarter to the weakest since 2011, while U.S. output climbed to the highest in three decades, and U.S. Energy Department data show. The Washington-based lowered its estimates yesterday for global economic growth this year and the next. “It’s $10 below OPEC’s preferred target price,” Ole Sloth Hansen, an analyst at Saxo Bank A/S in Copenhagen, said by e-mail. “But so far there’s no sign of action, so the […]