LONDON, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - Oil prices Wednesday trimmed losses and pulled away from one-year lows after major central banks surprisingly slashed interest rates in a coordinated move aimed at rescuing the flagging global economy.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November, was down 62 cents to 89.44 dollars a barrel.

London's Brent North Sea crude for November was down 63 cents to 84.03 dollars, coming off lows near 81 dollars earlier, after the central banks' joint effort.

Prices had tumbled to 12-month lows as plunging stock markets stoked fears of slowing economic growth and in turn weaker global demand for energy, traders said.

The European Central Bank, Bank of England, US Federal Reserve and central banks in Canada, Sweden and Switzerland made the deep and concerted cuts to interest rates to send their strongest signal of support for the markets since just after the September 11 terror attacks.

But some analysts voiced doubts the half point reduction in lending costs would be enough to snap the markets out of their deadly tailspin.

'Is a rate cut enough to boost the outlook for the real economy? I doubt it,' said Simon Wardell, an oil analyst at Global Insight in London.

'Unless there is a staggering turnaround in the economy, the outlook for (oil) prices is still weak,' he said, quoted by Dow Jones Newswires.

Prices rose Tuesday on speculation about a possible reduction in crude oil production by OPEC and a coordinated global round of interest rate cuts to combat the ongoing worldwide banking crisis.

Traders were meanwhile awaiting the latest snapshot on the state of US oil inventories for the week ending October 3. The United States is the world's biggest energy consuming nation.

'It's all doom and gloom on the demand side,' said Tony Nunan, a manager with Mitsubishi Corp's international petroleum business in Tokyo. 'The economy looks like it's going to get worse before it gets better.'

However demand for oil, particularly heating fuels, traditionally hits a peak during the upcoming northern hemisphere winter months.

Oil prices first broke through the 100-dollar level at the start of the year and touched record highs above 147 dollars in July.

But they have since fallen sharply on concerns that demand would slow further as a result of the global financial turmoil.