The daily basket price of oil by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, stood at 14.63 U.S. dollars a barrel early Wednesday, compared with 14.19 dollars on Monday.

This is according to OPEC Secretariat calculations released on Wednesday.

The OPEC basket is a weighted average of oil prices from different OPEC members around the world, and is used as an important benchmark for crude oil prices. It currently averages the oil prices of 13 countries including Algeria, Angola, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, and Kuwait. Other countries are Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela.

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The South African unit of Toyota could see its production drop by around 15-20% in 2020. This is according to the carmaker's president and CEO Andrew Kirby. Speaking during a virtual media briefing on Wednesday, Kirby said the division had already lost production of around 13,500 units due to a nationwide lockdown in South Africa, set to last five weeks. The company's annual production volume normally stands at around 135,000-150,000 units.

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South Africa’s headline consumer price inflation slowed to 4.1% year-on-year in March, from 4.6% in February. This is according to data released on Wednesday by Statistics South Africa.

The figures show that on a month-on-month basis, price growth was at 0.3% in March, from 1.0% in the previous month. Core inflation, which excludes prices of food, non-alcoholic beverages, petrol and energy, slowed to 3.7% year-on-year in March. This is compared with a rate of 3.8% in February. On a month-on-month basis, core inflation fell to 0.6%, from 1.2% in the prior month.

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South Africa’s rand firmed against the dollar early on Wednesday after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a 500 billion-rand rescue package on Tuesday evening to cushion the economic blow of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At 0620 GMT, the South African currency traded at 18 rand, 93 cents per dollar, 0.32% firmer than its previous close.

Among the measures to fund the rescue package, President Ramaphosa said South Africa had approached global financial institutions like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, the BRICS New Development Bank and the African Development Bank, primarily to fund healthcare interventions.

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The Zambia Chamber of Mines has urged the government to urgently engage with the sector and agree relief measures to address the issues facing mining companies in the midst of COVID-19.

The chamber, in a statement, said it had submitted a broad three-phase economic plan to the government, to urgently manage the economic impact arising from the coronavirus pandemic.

This proposal included immediate relief measures that could be followed by an emergency support package whose financing could be sought from the IMF and World Bank, the chamber said.

The proposal also included the implementation of a “fight back” fiscal regime once the COVID-19 pandemic had abated and investment was needed to rebuild the economy.

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A draft of Egypt's 2020/21 budget shows the country plans to cut spending on fuel subsidies by 47% to 28.193 billion Egyptian pounds. The draft budget allocates 52.963 billion pounds for fuel subsidies for the 2020/21 fiscal year, which begins on July 1. In the most recent data available, the government cut its spending on fuel subsidies by about 69% to 7.25 billion pounds in the July-September 2019 quarter.

The government’s draft budget also shows it aims to increase its net debt issuance by 19.7% to 974.482 billion pounds. The document said its plans include issuance of treasury bonds worth 700 billion pounds and treasury bills worth 274.482 billion pounds.

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Nigerian Shippers’ Council, NSC, has assigned some officials to terminal operators and shipping companies in a bid to ensure compliance to health safety guidelines amid the coronavirus pandemic. This is contained in a press release signed by the management of the Council. According to the statement, the assignment would guarantee the continuation of safe port operations for handling essential services as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari.

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The Central Bank of Nigeria is expected to begin disbursement of its 50-billion-naira targeted credit facility on Thursday.

The fund, which is being managed by NIRSAL Microfinance Bank, has received over 80,000 applications. Managing Director of the Bank, Abubakar Kure, confirmed the development in a telephone interview. Kure however did not provide the amount to be disbursed in the first tranche, he said those whose applications were successful would start receiving their fund on Thursday.

In terms of limit, the loan amount would be determined based on the activity, cash flow and industry size of beneficiary, subject to a maximum of 25 million naira for SMEs. Households can access a maximum of 3 million naira while working capital would be a maximum of 25 per cent of the average of the previous three years’ annual turnover.

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The Federal Government is set to expand the social register for palliative distribution by employing digital models including the use of Bank Verification Number.

The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Sadiya Farouq disclosed this in Abuja, while responding to questions at the Presidential Task Force briefing on COVID-19.

She noted that this digital measure will be faster and make the distribution more effective. The minister added that the conditional cash transfer to poor households which is currently going on in some parts of the country is transparent and well organized. She also added that measure is been put in place to avoid duplication of households.

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Nigeria's one-year currency forward posted its biggest fall in more than 10 years on Monday and stocks fell to an eight-year low after the central bank adjusted the naira's official rate.

The currency in Nigeria, which relies on oil sales for 90% of foreign exchange earnings, has suffered since crude prices plunged following a slide in global demand.

Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele said in a tweet that the currency move was a price adjustment, not a devaluation.

The naira's one-year forward price, which gives an indication of where the currency could trade in a year's time, fell 11.3% against the dollar.

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