Opec+ talks failure highlights virus uncertainty
Uncertainties over the economic fallout of the coronavirus epidemic a harbinger of more short-term volatility
A freak pneumonia-causing coronavirus spreading out of China, Covid-19, has triggered record weekly declines in world markets and slashed global crude demand—but its impact is so difficult to gauge accurately that world powers are struggling to agree on the best policy tools to deal with the crisis. This appears to be the immediate takeaway from the meeting between Opec and Russia in Vienna on Friday, where producers failed to negotiate a new output cut in order to shore up declining oil prices. It is not just policymakers who do not see eye-to-eye with each other. Analysts also differ widely in their economic and energy projections. Investment bank Goldman Sachs, for example, sees Brent
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