Dear Subscriber,

The price of Brent crude has declined 3.4% to $62.17pb in the last 2 days, driven largely by concerns that the coronavirus outbreak in China would dent the demand for oil. The SARS epidemic in 2003, led to an 8% drop in Asia’s air travel, which in turn had a knock-on effect on the demand for oil. Notwithstanding, the market consensus is that Brent would average $65pb in 2020.

Domestic commodity prices, mainly rice and tomatoes, have declined in the last few weeks. This is good news, particularly as food inflation in December was relatively high at 14.67%.

In the slides, these issues were discussed by analysts at the FDC Think Tank on Channels TV Business Morning programme today.

Enjoy your read!