| Summary: | Most commodity prices declined in the second quarter of 2015
due to ample supplies and weak demand, especially in industrial
commodities (Figure 1). One main exception was the price of
crude oil which rebounded early in the quarter on stronger demand
but has since weakened owing to a still large global surplus.
These trends are expected to persist for the rest of the year,
with a modest recovery in 2016 (Figure 2). This issue’s Special
Focus looks at China’s and India’s commodity consumption
patterns. It concludes that demand from China, and to a lesser
extent India, significantly raised global demand for metals and
energy—especially coal—and less so for food commodities. This
pattern reflected the countries’ different growth models and the
way in which consumption responds to income growth.
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