Oil pursued its earnings on Wednesday, nudging up by 1%, bolstered by the fact that the recently scrapped Covid-19 restrictions will eventually cause a revive in the Chinese demand.

Brent crude futures jumped by 0.88% to $86.68 per barrel, adding to the earlier gains at 1.7%. While U.S. WTI crude futures edged up 1.06% to $81.03, post recording 0.4% tick up in the earlier session.

The two main gauges soared over $1 per barrel touching the highest level since the beginning of the year.

The Chinese economy for 2022 slumped massively at 3%, gearing away from the 5.5% goal, recording the second poor contraction in 47 years.

Yet the figures went beyond expectations, according to a poll conducted earlier by Reuters analysts predicted a revive in the economy growth for this year at 4.9%.

OPEC reported that the oil demand in China for 2023 will nudge up by 510,000 bpd post shrinking sharply last year due to the strict Covid-19 measures to combat the virus spread.

However, OPEC did not revise up its projections for the worldwide demand for 2023 at 2.2 million barrel per day.