Oil prices are set to average $50 per barrel for 2021, rising by 20 percent from the average last year, but still well below the average for 2019, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its World Economic Outlook Update on Tuesday. In the October update, the IMF had expected oil prices—which it calculates at the simple average of the prices of Brent, Dubai Fateh, and West Texas Intermediate crude—to average $46.70 a barrel in 2021. The average price of oil was $41.29 per barrel in 2020, while the IMF sees the average 2021 price at $50.03 and at $48.82 a barrel for 2022. In the January economic update published today, the IMF sees the vaccine rollout strengthening economies in the latter half of this year. The fund expects the global economy to grow by 5.5 percent in 2021 and by 4.2 percent in 2022, amid exceptional uncertainty. “The […]