Further oil price cuts expected

Bookies and analysts are cutting their forecasts for oil as the market price hits yearly lows.

After hitting a high of $147 a barrel in July, the high price of oil has been blamed for rising inflation, which has in turn led to a slowdown in consumer spending.

But lately the price has slumped on fears of a global recession, with New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for November delivery, now at $73.20 a barrel.

Ladbrokes has now cut the odds of oil hitting $50 a barrel at the end of the month to 6/1, from 10/1.

Nick Weinberg, Ladbrokes spokesperson, said: "The days of record highs seem an age ago given the current climate."

Capital Economics has also changed its forecast for oil prices amid the financial turmoil. "Indeed, it does not take particularly stretching assumptions about the long-run elasticity of demand and supply, the prospects for global economic activity, or the outlook for the dollar, to justify a forecast that oil prices will fall as low as $50 again next year," said Julian Jessop.

The falling prices are already good news for consumers. The price of unleaded petrol has fallen below £1 for the first time since last December, as two retailers pledged to drop their pump prices.

Asda has announced that as of today, unleaded prices will fall across all its stations to 99.9p, while diesel will fall to 110.9p.

Morrisons has also dropped its prices and is now charging 99.9p for unleaded and 111.9p for diesel.

"The price cuts by Asda and Morrisons should force other retailers to lower their prices too, meaning we could see falling prices right across the country over the next few weeks," said Brendan McLoughlin, founder of PetrolPrices.com.

"However, lower petrol prices are dependent on low oil prices, so if the banking crisis forces investors towards commodities we could see both the price of oil and petrol picking up again," Mr McLoughlin warned.