World oil market chronology from

Oil prices have surged due to renewed concerns about the Middle East conflict. Brent crude futures increased by 0.32% to 90.80 USD per barrel, while American WTI crude rose by 0.3% to 86.50 USD per barrel. This comes amid fears of an Iranian strike on Israel following verbal threats by Iran in response to an Israeli attack on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria.

Global food prices rose in March, the first increase since July, pulled higher by cooking oil prices despite the cost of grains continuing to ease, the U.N.'s Food and Agricultural Organization has said.

The FAO's overall Food Price Index climbed 1.1 percent over the month to stand at 118.3 points in March 2024. On an annual comparison it was 7.7 percent lower.

In the oil market, the upward trend continues at the beginning of the new week, with prices rising to nearly 5-month highs due to increasing geopolitical risks related to supply disruptions. This surge is driven by a series of Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian refineries, reported by Reuters.  

Moscow, Riyadh and several other OPEC+ members on Sunday announced extensions to oil production cuts first announced in 2023 as part of an agreement among oil producers to boost prices following economic uncertainty.

Greece saw the second-highest increase in the price of olive oil since January 2023, with its 67 percent increase far above the European Union average of 50 percent, data from the EU's statistics arm showed on Tuesday.

The war between Israel and Hamas could trigger price shocks for raw materials such as oil and agriculture products if the conflict escalates across the Middle East, the World Bank warned in a report yesterday.

Oil has already risen six percent since the latest round of fighting, sparked when Hamas militants from Gaza stormed southern Israel.

The downward trend in the annual increase in the costs in the agriculture sector continued in June, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) have shown.

The agricultural input price index rose by 27.7 percent in June from a year ago, easing from the 33.2 percent year-on-year rise recorded in the previous month.

Oil prices fell nearly 1 percent in early European trade, erasing yesterday's gains on concerns about the viability of the bipartisan US debt ceiling deal and mixed messages from top oil producers ahead of the OPEC+ meeting later in the week.

Oil prices continued to fall during trading on Thursday, hitting three-week lows on concerns that rising interest rates policies by leading central banks could limit global economic growth and fuel consumption going forward.

At the same time, the dollar has appreciated in the foreign exchange market, with its strengthening making oil more expensive for buyers in other currencies.

Global oil prices rose after several leading producers, led by Saudi Arabia, surprisingly announced production cuts, AFP reported.

Crude futures rose nearly eight percent, a day after several OPEC+ members unexpectedly announced production cuts totaling more than one million barrels per day.