Crude prices retreated on Thursday as gloomy economic data stirred concerns on energy consumption.

The International Monetary Fund predicted global economic growth will slow down to just 0.5 percent in 2009, a sharp decline of 1.7 percentage points from its November prediction of 2.2 percent.

The U.S. Labor Department reported that the number of continuing unemployment benefit claims increased 159,000 to 4.78 million during the week ending Jan. 17, the highest on records since 1967 and much worse than economists' expectations of 4.65 million.

The U.S. Commerce Department said on Thursday that new orders for durable goods dropped by 2.6 percent last month, worse than the 2 percent decline economists expected.

Light, sweet crude for March delivery fell 72 cents to settle at 41.44 U.S. dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In London, the March Brent contract rose 43 cents to 45.33 dollars on the ICE Futures exchange.

(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2009)