Global Commodity Markets : Review and Price Forecast
This is a companion to the Global Economic Prospects 2010. Most commodity prices reached historical highs in mid-2008, giving rise to the longest and broadest commodity boom of the post-WWII period. Apart from strong and sustained economic growth,...
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC
2017
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/447481468326171884/Global-commodity-markets-review-and-price-forecast-a-companion-to-global-economic-prospects-2010 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27846 |
| Summary: | This is a companion to the Global
Economic Prospects 2010. Most commodity prices reached
historical highs in mid-2008, giving rise to the longest and
broadest commodity boom of the post-WWII period. Apart from
strong and sustained economic growth, the boom was fueled by
numerous factors including years of low prices and low
investment; a weak dollar; and investment fund activity.
Rapid economic growth caused global stocks of many
commodities to fall to levels not seen since the early
1970s, in turn accelerating the price increases that peaked
in 2008. Further exacerbating the demand and supply mismatch
were the diversion of some food commodities to the
production of biofuels, adverse weather conditions, and
government policies such as export bans and prohibitive
taxes. The financial crisis that erupted in September 2008
and the subsequent global economic downturn relieved most of
the demand-side pressures and induced sharp price declines
across most commodity sectors. The largest declines occurred
in industrial commodities such as metals (which had also
registered the greatest gains in the early 2000s). Between
July 2008 and February 2009, prices of energy declined by
two-thirds while those of metals dropped by more than half.
Prices of agricultural goods retreated by more than 30
percent, with prices of edible oils dropping by 42 percent.
The troughs in energy and non-energy indices broadly
coincided with troughs in global economic activity
(particularly in China and East Asia). |
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