On Friday, oil prices fell and were on track to make weekly losses. This is because solid U.S. economic data has reinforced concerns that the Federal Reserve will continue its tight monetary policy to fight inflation.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) U.S. crude oil futures lost 46 cents, a loss of 0.6%, to $78.03, while at 0105 GMT, Brent crude oil futures fell 49 cents, or 0.6%, to $84.65 per barrel. Both of these indices were headed for a weekly decline of around 2%. After falling by 0.2% in December, the data showed that the US producer price index rose by 0.7% in January. A Reuters poll mentions that unemployment benefit claims have dropped unexpectedly to 194,000, compared with the forecast of 200,000.

Kazuhiko Saito, chief analyst at Fujitomi Securities Co Ltd said, “Strong US data has reinforced concerns about rate hikes and caused US Treasury yields to rise, which has And on the prices of oil and other raw materials.”