MELBOURNE, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Oil prices came off three-month lows on Friday but were on track for a weekly decline of around 6% as new lockdowns in countries with low vaccination rates facing surging cases of the Delta variant dimmed the outlook for fuel demand.

TOKYO, Aug 20 (Reuters) - The safe-haven U.S. dollar hovered near a 9-1/2-month high against major peers on Friday, buoyed by fears that the Delta coronavirus variant could delay the global economic recovery.

TOKYO, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Japan's core consumer prices narrowed their annual pace of falls for three straight months in July, a sign global commodities inflation was offsetting some of the deflationary pressure from a pandemic-induced spending slump.

Based on the preliminary estimates from member countries, the outlook of natural rubber (NR) production in 2021 trimmed down to 13.782 million tonnes following a downward estimate for Malaysia’s production by 30,000 tonnes. Signs of recovery observed in major economies as the containment measures eased, this has led to an anticipated world demand of NR of 13.900 million tonnes, up 7.2% growth from previous year when the world was first hit by the pandemic.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve officials felt their employment benchmark for decreasing support for the economy “could be reached this year,” but appeared to disagree on other key aspects of where monetary policy should turn next in the transition from the pandemic crisis, according to minutes from last month’s policy meeting.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Asian shares fell on Thursday while the dollar reached multi-month highs against peers, after minutes from the U.S. central bank’s last meeting showed the increasing prospect of reduced monetary stimulus this year.