Oil prices slumped on Wednesday after diving more than 4% during the previous trading session as the global recession is expected to cool down oil consumption. International benchmark Brent crude traded at $81.74 per barrel at 09.56 a.m. local time (0656GMT), down 0.43% from the closing price of $82.10 a barrel in the previous trading session. American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) traded at $76.50 per barrel at the same time, a 0.55% loss after the previous session closed at $76.93 a barrel. Both benchmarks recorded rapid declines, with Brent losing almost $5 a barrel during Tuesday’s choppy trading session. The weaker demand worries put downward pressure on prices, especially after the IMF’s Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said one-third of the world’s economies are expected to go into recession in 2023. “Even countries that are not in recession, it would feel like recession for hundreds of millions of people,” Georgieva told CBS news on Sunday.