Publications /
Policy Brief

Back
From a Bleak Global Outlook to Speculative Strategies: Understanding the Downturn in Metal Prices
Authors
November 26, 2018

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

  • Authors
    December 21, 2017
    Nigerian and « design thinking process » expert, Ade Mabogunje has worked in Africa, India and Europe, before settling in California, where he is a Director at Stanford University. What does it take exactly for innovation to happen ? Such is the line of his thinking and teaching. He’s been invited twice to the 2016 and 2017 Atlantic Dialogues to share his knowledge with two cohorts of 50 Emerging Leaders from Africa, Europe and the Americas, selected by the OCP Policy Center. This P ...
  • Authors
    Zidong An
    Gonzalez Prieto
    December 20, 2017
    This paper investigates the relationship between economic growth and job creation in developing economies with a focus on low and lower middle-income countries along two dimensions: growth patterns and short-run correlations. Analysis on growth patterns shows that regime changes are quite common in both economic growth and employment growth, yet they are not synchronized with each other. Okun’s Law—the short-run relationship between output and labor market—holds in half of the count ...
  • Authors
    December 20, 2017
    La troisième et dernière journée de la conférence de haut niveau Atlantique Dialogues, organisée du 13 au 15 décembre à Marrakech par l’OCP Policy Center, a porté pour l’essentiel sur des questions de géopolitique africaine, ainsi que sur la “croissance sans emploi”, “les partenariats Sud-Sud” et les témoignages apportés par trois anciens présidents d’Argentine et du Costa-Rica sur les trajectoires de développement latino-américaines. “Sécurité dans le Sahel et implications transat ...
  • Authors
    December 18, 2017
    La conférence Atlantic Dialogues 2017 s'est poursuivie le 14 décembre à Marrakech en passant progressivement de l'économie à la géopolitique. Des personnalités du Nord et du Sud se sont répondues, dans un débat franc et ouvert.  Hubert Védrine, ancien ministre français des Affaires étrangères, a livré son analyse de la diplomatie mondiale en ces termes : « Tous les pays défendent leurs intérêts et développent des idées, mais une dizaine seulement ont une vraie politique étrangère. L ...
  • Authors
    Jorge Arbache
    December 18, 2017
    I am in Marrakech attending the Atlantic Dialogue, a very interesting event organized by the OCP Policy Center. One of the questions put to debate was: "How can Sub-Saharan Africa benefit from its economic potential to grow, thrive and eliminate poverty?" In fact, this is one of the questions most frequently raised by the economic development community. And one of the most common responses is that, alongside natural resources, the young population is the most powerful engine of gro ...