Market Information Tuesday 26 May 2020

Russia is stopping imports of oil products until October. The strict measures to control the coronavirus resulted in a collapse in oil demand resulting in very low prices for various fuels such as petrol and diesel. An import ban should prevent cheap oil from abroad from entering the Russian market in the coming months. Belarus is one of the largest exporters of gasoline to Russia. The neighbouring country produces three times as much petrol as needed for its own consumption and sends about 2000 tons of petrol to Russia every year.

Next month, the European Central Bank (ECB) will most likely expand its bond repurchase programme to provide additional support to the eurozone economy during the corona crisis. Now that inflation is low, there is room to innovate and “act rapidly and powerfully”, Francois Villeroy de Galhau said. He is the governor of the French central bank and also one of the main policy makers at the ECB. At the time of the previous interest rate decision at the end of April, the ECB did not yet extend the emergency repurchase programme, but stated that it would be ready to expand or extend the EUR 750 billion programme.

World trade was 1.4% lower in March than in February under pressure from the corona crisis, reports the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB). This drop is scarcely bigger than in January and February, when world trade also fell by an average of 1.2%. For April and May, the CPB foresees an overall sharper decline in world trade and production, in line with the tightening up of corona measures in many regions.

The 6M Euribor is unchanged at -0.15% compared to previous business day. The 10Y Swap is unchanged at -0.14% compared to previous business day.

In the attachment, today’s market data on money and capital market rates as well as other rates are presented.