LONDON (Reuters) - Oil fell more than $1 to below $56 a barrel on Monday, close to its lowest in almost two years, after a meeting of the Group of 20 major economies ended with few concrete proposals on dealing with global recession.
News that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) may wait until its meeting on December 17, instead of the end of November, to make a decision on whether to cut production targets again also weighed on prices.
U.S. light crude for December fell $1.55, or 2.7 percent, to a low of $55.49 a barrel before recovering a little to around $55.79 by 1110 GMT. Last Thursday, U.S. crude reached a low of $54.67 a barrel, its weakest since January 2007.
London Brent crude fell $0.98 to $53.26.
Simon Wardell, analyst at economic consultancy Global Insight, said the lack of any solid action plan from the G20 had provided a weak undertone to the oil market:
"The economic outlook is worrying and no solution has been found short term. People are expecting things to get worse as the economic data continues to look poor and, in the absence of anything else, that is helping to push prices lower."
Governments from Washington to Beijing agreed on Saturday to a raft of fiscal and monetary steps to rescue the global economy but it was left to individual governments to tailor responses to their circumstances and troubled industries.
Although the package of economic rescue measures agreed by the G20 countries sought to settle volatile markets and calm consumer anxieties about leaders' ability to work together, the proposals did little to alleviate investors' fears.
