Oil prices recouped some early losses on Wednesday but remained under pressure after the World Bank cut its global economic growth forecast. World Bank Group Lead Economist Franziska Ohnsorge expects soft oil prices to persist through 2015.

SHOWS: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (JANUARY 14, 2015) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)

1. WORLD BANK GROUP, LEAD ECONOMIST, FRANZISKA OHNSORGE, SAYING:

JOURNALIST ASKING FRANZISKA OHNSORGE: 'So you have stated that global economic prospects are improving in 2015 but with divergent trends. Which regions do you see leading growth and which nations may lag?'

OHNSORGE: 'We do expect growth to pick up from about 2.6 percent in 2014 to 3 percent in 2015 and further in 2017 and 2016. The U.S. is clearly on the track to a robust recovery, labour markets are improving and the housing market is helping. So with the U.S. recovery its trading partners will obviously benefit, that includes Mexico prominently. But among developing countries also we see some bright spots, for example reform minded governments are in Mexico and in India and for them we have fairly robust growth forecast also as we expect confidence from these reforms to lift investment climate and support activity.'

JOURNALIST: 'OK so what's your outlook on crude, are crude oil prices below $50 a barrel sustainable? And how do you see lower crude prices impacting global growth?'

OHNSORGE: 'Crude prices have dropped by half since January. We expect soft prices to persist through much of 2015 and 16. Actually for the near term we expect prices to remain low. That will of course support global growth but what it will also do is it will reduce global inflation. We estimate on the order of 0.4 to 0.9 percentage point in 2015 and 2016 over the course of two years. The extent to which it reduces inflation in each country really depends on country specific circumstances. It depends on other factors like depreciation or to what extent oil price changes are buffered by subsidies for example.'