Oil slips on China's economic slowdown

World oil prices edged lower on Monday after weak economic data in both China and the United States, the two biggest global consumers of crude. In late afternoon deals, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in August dipped four cents to $108.77 per barrel. New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for August, slipped 17 cents to $105.78 compared with Friday's closing level. "Crude oil prices slid lower on Monday, opening the week on the negative side, as disappointing Chinese economic data hurt market sentiment and limited risk appetite, prompting investors to lock in recent gains," said Kash Kamal at Sucden brokers. "The fairly poor Chinese data verified concerns about a slowdown in the Chinese economy which could result in a lack of oil demand in the third quarter of 2013," he added. China's gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 7.5 percent in the April-June quarter, official data showed Monday, a second consecutive slowdown in growth. That was slower than the 7.7 percent growth in the previous three months. The in-line reading provided brief support for oil prices in earlier trade on Monday, before profit-taking set in. Brent rallied to $109.17, the highest point since early April, while New York crude came close to recent 15-month highs. The Chinese economic slowdown has meanwhile focused analysts' attention on the knock-on effects on other major global economies. "China has also been heavily relied upon to lift the rest of the world out of the slump it found itself in after the crisis kicked in in 2008," Gekko Markets analyst Anita Paluch told AFP. "As such, every piece of news tends to dominate the headlines. With today's data, this seems to have been priced in. "Still, slower growth will have impact on those countries who have strong trade links with China, like Australia, Brazil and (the) Southeast Asia region." Elsewhere, traders digested disappointing June US retail sales data. Sales slowed in June to a halt except for continued growth in automobile sales, government data showed. Market expectations had been for a 0.7 percent gain. New York oil had spiked last week to a 15-month pinnacle of $107.45 -- last seen in late March 2012 -- after US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke pledged to retain the central bank's easy-money stimulus policy. The market had also won a boost from Egypt-link supply fears and signs of solid US energy demand. London-based research house Capital Economics played down talk that recent price gains would hurt the global economy. "The recent rise in oil prices is not large enough to be a significant drag on global growth, particularly given that Brent crude has increased much less than WTI," said Capital Economics analyst Andrew Kenningham. "However, if prices rise much further, this would threaten our forecast that world GDP growth will gradually accelerate over the coming years."