Coronavirus continues to dampen Chinese economic growth with these effects poised to trickle to commodity-based African economies. As of February 11, Chinese authorities reported 1113 deaths and 44653 confirmed cases.
CNBC says that the coronavirus is battering commodity-based African economies with port closures in China forcing sellers such as Angola’s Sonangol forced to sell one shipment at a discount.
In addition, West African oil exporters are likely to be hard hit by the fluctuating commodity price due to trade disruption. For instance, Brent crude has declined 16.96% since the year began and was trading just over $55 on Thursday.
Other African exporters of commodities such as iron ore, gold, and copper risk exposure to the turbulent business environment. They include Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria and Ghana.
Elsewhere, OPEC slashed oil demand outlook for 2020 growth to 0.99 million barrels per day (bpd) in the February Monthly Oil Report. In the report released on Wednesday, OPEC cut global crude oil demand by 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 29.3 million (bpd).
The Bank of England is forecasting growth for the UK this year of only 0.8 per cent. and expects growth to rebound to 1.4 percent in 2021
Canadian dollar slightly gained in early Wednesday trading to one week high on renewed optimism about the effect of coronavirus boosting stocks and oil, Canada major export.
Moreover, gold’s bullish run may have eased as investors remain optimistic that China will contain the coronavirus scare as the price ranged $1566.
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