Publications /
Policy Brief

Back
Download PDF
French Version
From a Bleak Global Outlook to Speculative Strategies: Understanding the Downturn in Metal Prices
Authors
Yves Jégourel
November 26, 2018
Related topics: 

Prices of nearly all industrial and precious metals have been on a downward trend for several months.A tightening US monetary policy and the subsequent dollar appreciation partly explain this trajectory, but it is above all the mounting global macroeconomic gloom that has depressed markets.Escalating trade tensions between the United States and China, among other countries, are not likely to be conducive to global growth and in that respect, to the demand for metals. However, not everything can be justified by market fundamentals.Speculative dynamics are clearly at work and also account for the scale of this decline.

RELATED CONTENT

  • Gender equality and the African Union: From Development to Policy Change?
    Authors
    Naakoshie Mills
    May 31, 2019
    The author is an alumnus of the 2016 Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders program People centered development is the crux of the African Union’s (AU) new Agenda 2063 initiative. Its overall goal is a Pan African transformation and development of its member countries, while reframing the continent’s presence on the global stage. Fortunately, women’s equality is one of its aims, addressing discrimination, gender-based violence, and empowerment, to name a few. As developed nations like ...
  • Download PDF
    Current Account Adjustments and Exchange Rate Arrangements: What Regime for African Countries?
    Authors
    Abdelaaziz Ait Ali
    Mohamed Obaidy
    May 30, 2019
    This paper empirically examines the impact of exchange rate arrangements on current account imbalances within the African context. Following Friedman’s hypothesis (Friedman, 1953), we test the propositions stating that flexible exchange rate regimes limit the magnitude of real external shocks and permit smoother adjustments of external imbalances. Using a new de facto exchange rate regime classification, we employ two empirical methodologies to test this hypothesis: we first apply a ...
  • Download PDF
    Bretton Woods system: did we throw the baby out with the bathwater ? Lessons for developing economies
    Authors
    Mouhamadou Moustapha Ly
    May 29, 2019
    The world economy has gone through several systems to determine a value between country’s currencies. After the Second World War and the so-called gold standards, major world economies engaged into a system of fixed exchange rate of currencies against the dollar and, the whole system was backed by the value of USD against gold. After the end of that mechanism known as the Bretton Wood system in the 1970s, major world economies decided to liberalize the system of international exchan ...
  • Download PDF
    Strengthening the Rules-Based Trading System
    Authors
    T20 experts
    Uri Dadush
    May 28, 2019
    The world trading system has been remarkably successful in many respects but is presently under tremendous strain. The causes are deep-seated and require a strategic response. The future of the system depends critically on reinvigorating the WTO and policy change in the largest trading nations. Important measures are required to sustain the multilateral trading system, and urgent action is needed to avoid a scenario where the system fragments. The worst scenarios will disrupt global ...
  • EU democracy is alive and well as the battle for Europe’s top jobs starts
    Authors
    Thomas Richter
    May 27, 2019
    The author is an alumnus of the 2018 Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders program As European citizens wake up on Monday morning, democracy is alive and well in Europe. Voter turnout increased to 50,5% compared to with 42,6% in 2014, the highest for two decades as voters across the continent responded to the populist threat. Anti-EU, populist and nationalist parties have seen gains (around 115 seats) and as a committed European i am saddened to see more voters turn to populists for ...
  • Download PDF
    Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders Vision 2025: Building an Atlantic Community
    Authors
    Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders
    May 24, 2019
    The concept of a “Wider Atlantic” has been finding its way into mainstream discourse, as it is progressively molding into an alternative to the present-day understanding of transatlantic relations. The attention is being refocused to a wider geographic area around the Atlantic basin, which includes Southern Atlantic states in the policy and opinion-shaping conversation (s). With 23 states now comprising the Western Atlantic Coast of Africa, this continent has an ever-growing role to ...
  • Download PDF
    The UK’s policy towards Africa post-Brexit
    Authors
    Juliana Suess
    May 24, 2019
    On the eve of Britain’s exit from the European Union, the country is redefining its international approach. The United Kingdom has already taken action by becoming involved in new economic commitments, new trade agreements in Commonwealth countries but also from a diplomatic point of view in West Africa. While development aid remains a focal point of its intervention in Africa, it risks being undermined by the Brexit and its economic consequences. However, the United Kingdom is now ...