The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana (COPEC), has asked the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), to desist from making pronouncements on fuel price movements at the pumps.

This follows the NPA CEO, Hassan Tampuli’s suggestion that per their calculation, consumers should expect about 15 percent reduction in fuel prices from March 15, 2020, which is the next pricing window.

Executive Director of COPEC, Duncan Amoah while speaking on the expected reduction due to the 30% drop in global crude prices and the relative stability of the cedi against major international currencies said pronouncements on prices by the regulator, will suggest that Ghana is returning to a regulated petroleum market.

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The General Manager of Mobile Money Limited, a subsidiary of MTN Ghana, Eli Hini, says the role of the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems, GhiPSS in the country’s payment system has to be properly defined.

According to Mr. Hini, there is a lack of clarity regarding what functions GhIPSS performs especially with the passage of the Payment Systems and Services Act, which is to regulate the activities of payment services providers among others.

Mr. Hini argued that, when clarity is provided, it will help the industry’s development. He said that Just like we have defined Electronic Money Issuers and what they can do, financial technology companies etc.

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Egypt’s crucial tourism sector was recovering from the 2011 revolution, a 2013 coup and consistent Islamist threats, the billion dollar industry finds itself preparing for a possible attack from the new coronavirus.

Egypt’s sudden declaration of 45 new coronavirus cases from the single ship, a drastic spike from its previous countrywide record of three, sparked fears the disease was far more widely spread in the country of 100 million people.

Luxor, home to the iconic Valley of the Kings and Tutankhamen’s tomb, is now the center of the country’s COVID-19 outbreak. Last weekend, 45 passengers and crew members aboard the cruise ship, ‘A Sara’, tested positive for the virus. On Sunday the government confirmed the country’s and Africa’s first fatality from the illness. The North African nation had reported 59 infections by Wednesday.

Despite this, the tourism and antiquities minister Khaled al-Anany and Egyptian officials continue to be reassuring.

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Spain’s equality minister has tested positive for coronavirus and has been quarantined with her partner, deputy prime minister and Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias.

The statement released said The minister (Irene Montero) is in a good condition and second deputy prime minister Pablo Iglesias is also in quarantine due to the situation

It also added that all members of the government will undergo testing today also indicating the results would be published later in the day.

The announcement was made barely two hours before the government was to convene a special cabinet meeting to discuss an emergency plan of action to respond to the coronavirus crisis

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Travelers scrambled at European airports to board flights to the US on Thursday after President Donald Trump announced sweeping travel restrictions to curb the spread of coronavirus.

The 30-day travel order will apply to citizens of 26 European countries but exclude Britain and Ireland as well as American citizens.

The travel ban is to take effect from midnight on Friday.

Trump’s announcement has disrupted the travel plans of thousands of people and hit airlines already reeling from the coronavirus outbreak.

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The United Arab Emirates followed Saudi Arabia on Wednesday in promising to raise oil output to a record high in April, as the two producers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) raised the stakes in a standoff with Russia that has hammered global crude prices.

The extra oil the two Gulf allies plan to add is equivalent to 3.6 percent of global supplies and will pour into the market at a time when global fuel demand in 2020 is forecast to contract for the first time in almost a decade due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Oil prices have almost halved since the start of the year on fears that OPEC states would flood the market in OPEC's battle with Russia after Moscow rejected the bloc's call last week for deep output cuts and a pact on cutting output that has propped up prices since the 2016 oil-market collapse.

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Global shares crumbled after United States President Donald Trump said the US will suspend all travel from continental Europe as he unveiled measures to contain the coronavirus epidemic that has extracted a heavy human and economic toll worldwide.

US S&P500 futures slumped more than 3 percent, a day after the S&P 500 lost 4.89 percent, putting the index in a bear market, defined as a 20 percent fall from a recent top.

Euro Stoxx 50 futures dived more than 5 percent to their lowest levels since mid-2016. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 2 percent to its lowest level since early 2019, while Japan's Nikkei 225 index lost 3.3 percent.

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China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology says the country’s gold consumption declined 12.9% year on year to 1,002.8 tonnes in 2019 as economic downward pressure weakened domestic consumption. The ministry said the consumption of gold bars and coins went down 27% to 225.8 tonnes, while gold jewelry dropped 8.2% to 676.2 tonnes. It noted that gold output in 2019 stood at 500.4 tonnes, down 2.6% from a year earlier.

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The Bank of England has announced an emergency cut in interest rates to shore up the economy amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Policymakers reduced rates from 0.75% to 0.25%, taking borrowing costs back down to the lowest level in history.

The Bank said it would also free up billions of pounds of extra lending power to help banks support firms.

It comes as the chancellor is expected to announce further measures to support growth and jobs in the Budget later.

The emergency rate cut comes as a sixth person died from the virus in the UK, which has a total of 382 cases.

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Officials have seized a container full of illegal firearms entering Ethiopia through the port of Djibouti. Officials are quoted as saying they believe the weapons came from Turkey and were smuggled into Ethiopia by international arms-trafficking groups.

They say the haul contained more than 18,000 pistols and estimate it was worth more than 13 million dollars. The Ethiopian National Intelligence and Security Service says about 24 suspects have been arrested. It says two of them were Sudanese nationals.

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