Economy Bottoming, Demand Improving, Frontline Says (Alistair Holloway)

File photo of Frontline Ltd.'s "Front Shanghai" supertanker. Source: Frontline Ltd., via Bloomberg

Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) -- The world economy may be improving from its worst slump in six decades, bolstering demand, said Jens Martin Jensen, head of the management unit of Frontline Ltd., the world’s biggest operator of supertankers.

The company, based in Hamilton, Bermuda, posted a better- than-expected 91 percent drop in second-quarter profit today.

“On the demand side, maybe the world economy has hit the bottom and things are starting to improve,” Jensen said by phone today from Oslo.

European confidence in the economic outlook increased twice as much as economists forecast in August, a European Commission report showed today. The U.S. economy, the world’s biggest oil user, shrank less than expected in the second quarter, and France and Germany returned to growth in the same period.