US, Britain take action on oil, currencies
The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil price has rebounded after the US announced a purchase for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an energy analyst at Thai Oil said on Friday (March 20).
The US said it will buy 30 million barrels by the end of June from manufacturers that have fewer than 5,000 employees for the reserve on the Gulf of Mexico, which has capacity for 77 million barrels.
Bank of England meanwhile will cut the policy interest rate from 0.25 to 0.10 per cent and increase the credit limit by over 200 billion pounds to 645 billion pounds to buy bonds as a quantitative easing measure to mitigate the economic impact of the Covid-19 outbreak.
And the US Federal Reserve is cooperating with the central banks of Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Sweden, South Korea and Singapore to increase the dollar’s liquidity through six-year currency swaps as investors buy up dollars during the global economic recession.
The price of benzene fuel has dropped more than that of Dubai crude oil because the supply in Asia has ebbed due to the economy and Covid-19, even though some Asian refineries have cut production.
The same has happened with diesel fuel despite an increase in supply with refineries in the Middle East resuming operations after annual maintenance.
