Publications /
Policy Brief

Back
Download PDF
French Version
Free Markets vs.a Producer Price System: Why are Commodity Markets Becoming Financialized?
Authors
Yves Jégourel
June 1, 2015
Related topics: 
Commodities & Energy
Natural Resources

The financialization of commodity chains has its origins far beyond the increased participation of investment funds on the futures markets. It should basically be understood as the consequence of the progressive inability of players that make up these commodity chains to jointly manage price risk resulting from the transfer of product from upstream to downstream. This dynamic has emerged since the late 1970s, but it is likely that the current drop in prices, if it proved sustainable, and China's assertion as a financial power to strengthen the dynamic in the coming years.

RELATED CONTENT

  • Download PDF
    Les conséquences de l’invasion de l’Ukraine, par la Russie, pour l’approvisionnement de l’Afrique en blé
    Authors
    Henri-Louis Vedie
    March 29, 2022
    L'invasion, par la Russie, de l'Ukraine, grenier à blé de la mer Noire, impacte lourdement le marché mondial de cette denrée, en premier lieu les principaux pays/clients importateurs des deux belligérants. L'objet de cette étude est d'analyser les conséquences de cette guerre pour l’Afrique, continent où le pain est un aliment de base. Ce qui nous conduit, tout d'abord, à rappeler les données générales de ce marché, avec une Russie et une Ukraine respectivement au premier et cinquiè ...
  • Download PDF
    Implications of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on wheat supplies to Africa
    Authors
    Henri-Louis Vedie
    March 29, 2022
    Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Black Sea granary, severely impacts global wheat markets, and especially hits the two warring parties' primary importing countries/clients. This study examines impacts of this war on Africa, where bread is a basic staple. This brings us to start with a review of broad market data, with Russia and Ukraine respectively ranking first and fifth among global wheat exporters, and the European Union (EU) gaining an edge as an alternative to the U.S./Canada ...
  • The Neglected Side of the Water Management Equation: Demand Management
    Authors
    Ahmed Rachid El-Khattabi
    March 17, 2022
    The start of 2022 has been marked by drought, with countries around the world experiencing abnormally low levels of precipitation and dryness over the last few months. On the African continent, the intensity and duration of the droughts is wreaking havoc on economies already struggling because of the pandemic. In the eastern part of the continent, drought threatened to put countries in the Horn of Africa “on the brink of catastrophe” as late as February. In the north, Morocco is exp ...
  • Download PDF
    War in Ukraine and Risks of Stagflation
    Authors
    Otaviano Canuto
    March 15, 2022
    The war in Ukraine is bringing substantial financial, commodity price, and supply chain shocks to the global economy. Sanctions on Russia are already having a significant impact on its financial system and its economy. Price shocks will have a global impact. Energy and commodity prices—including wheat and other grains—have risen, intensifying inflationary pressures from supply chain disruptions and the recovery from the pandemic. The push toward relative deglobalization received fro ...
  • Download PDF
    The experience of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay: Market integration within MERCOSUR and with other global partners Insights for AfCFTA countries?
    Authors
    Isabelle Tsakok
    March 11, 2022
    The pros and the cons of regional market integration are well exemplified by the experience of Uruguay, a small, open economy in MERCOSUR, which is a highly protectionist trade bloc, dominated by Argentina and Brazil. With access to such large markets, Uruguay did raise its growth rate during the first decade of MERCOSUR, the 1990s. However, market integration as implemented in MERCOSUR was also problematic in that Uruguay suffered from the high protectionism of Argentina in the for ...
  • Download PDF
    Vers une « décommoditisation » des marchés de matières premières ?
    Authors
    Yves Jégourel
    March 9, 2022
    S’il est commun de catégoriser les matières premières en fonction de leur réalité physique et de distinguer, en cela, produits agricoles, énergie et métaux, on se saurait oublier que ce sont les caractéristiques économiques qu’elles partagent qui justifient le regroupement de ces produits de base sous le terme commun de « commodities ». Une analyse en profondeur révèle toutefois la mise en œuvre, par les producteurs, de stratégies de différenciation par la qualité visa ...
  • Download PDF
    The experience of the Argentine Republic: Market integration within MERCOSUR and with other global partners Insights for AfCFTA countries?
    Authors
    Isabelle Tsakok
    March 8, 2022
    The contrast between Argentina’s rich natural resource endowment and its poor economic performance has been the focus of much socio-political and economic analysis. When it created MERCOSUR with its immediate neighbors, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay in 1991, it had access to a trading bloc with a combined GDP of US$ 419 trillion (2019), making it the 5th largest economy in the world. Joining the MERCOSUR was a break from its protectionist past. But it did not last. Argentina greatl ...
  • Integrated Transition Toward Sustainability: The Case of the Water-Energy-Food Nexus in Morocco
    Authors
    Afaf Zarkik
    Ahmed Ouhnini
    March 1, 2022
    Known for being a climate change hotspot, Morocco is at the forefront of a climate disaster. Consequences are already being felt, whether in the form of increasing temperature or a downward trend in precipitations, which directly threaten the water security and, by extension, the social-ecological systems of the country. The systems by which food, energy, and water are produced, distributed, and consumed heavily depend on one another. Their implicit feedbacks and links are not linea ...
  • Guerre en Ukraine : quelles incidences sur les prix de l’énergie ?
    Authors
    Yves Jégourel
    February 25, 2022
    Phénomène inédit depuis 2014, le prix du baril de Brent a dépassé le 24 février 2022 le seuil de 100 USD/bbl, à la suite de la déclaration par la Russie de la guerre contre l’Ukraine. Il atteignait même 105 USD/bbl en séance, avant de se replier légèrement. Nul ne pouvait en être surpris, et ce pour deux raisons principales. En premier lieu, le pétrole est, à l’instar de l’or, l’un des baromètres des tensions géopolitiques mondiales et il ne fallait guère être devin pour savoir que ...