Mumbai, Oct. 13 -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has stated today that crude oil prices have been volatile since the April 2026 World Economic Outlook (WEO), reflecting the ebb and flow of the war in the Middle East. As shipments through the Strait of Hormuz nearly halted, disrupting about 20 percent of global oil supply, oil prices peaked in late March at $126 a barrel, reflecting extreme tightness in the physical market, visible in the Dubai-Brent spread widening to $54. The market adjusted through increased production outside the Persian Gulf (notably in Brazil, Kazakhstan, the United States, and Venezuela); a drawdown of oil inventories, especially through the International Energy Agency (IEA) emergency stocks release, and of Ch...