After a recession warning from the International Monetary Fund added to concerns over the rising Covid virus epidemic in China, oil prices continued to decline on Wednesday.

March contracts for Brent crude futures, the European benchmark, fell to $79.26 per barrel by 12:41 GMT, marking a 3.4% loss. West Texas Intermediate, the American benchmark, dropped more than 3.2%, sinking to $74.47 per barrel. Both benchmarks had plummeted over 4% on Tuesday.

Analysts have watched with trepidation over the last few days as Covid-19 cases in mainland China have surged. That has led to fears that the world’s second-largest economy may continue to be disrupted, even as it finally attempts to move beyond the stringent zero-Covid policies which have kept it shuttered to date, and prevented any recovery of demand which might support global oil prices.

Last week, Kristalina Georgieva, the head of the International Monetary Fund, warned that between the massive surge of Covid cases growing in China, the ongoing Ukraine conflict, soaring consumer inflation, and rising interest rates produced by central banks trying to get price increases under control, analysts fear that up to a third of the global economy will be plunged into a recession this year.

All of that points to a reduced demand outlook for oil, and that would make it appear prices may continue to prove weak for the foreseeable future.