Commodities Update Malaysia Monthly Palm Oil Data (Aug.) Data released earlier today by Malaysia’s Palm Oil Board show that crude palm oil production in August was the highest on record. Stocks also rose sharply again. 10th September 2015 · 1 min read
Commodities Update Brazil Sugar Production (16th Aug. – 1st Sep.) Data released today by Brazil’s Sugarcane Industry Association, UNICA, revealed that the amount of sugar cane harvested in Brazil’s main sugar producing South-Central region in the second half of... 9th September 2015 · 1 min read
Global Economics Update Will commodity exporters continue to weigh on global growth? Fears about the health of the world economy have centred on China, but the bulk of the slowdown over the past year has actually been due to weaker growth in commodity exporters. The outlook varies by... 9th September 2015 · 1 min read
Metals Data Response World Gold Official Reserves (Jul.) Buying by global central banks picked up pace in July, with China and Russia once again particularly active. Going forward, we expect further official purchases to be one of several factors supporting... 9th September 2015 · 1 min read
Global Markets Update Which G-10 commodity currencies remain vulnerable? Four of the worst-performing G-10 currencies since mid-2014 have been those of countries that export large amounts of commodities, namely the dollars of Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and the... 8th September 2015 · 1 min read
Precious Metals Update Q2 2015 Platinum Quarterly In its latest Platinum Quarterly report, published today, the World Platinum Investment Council (WPIC) depicted a challenging time for platinum in Q2. With the exception of investment demand... 8th September 2015 · 1 min read
Commodities Update China’s commodity imports down but not out China’s trade data took another turn for the worse in August but, in common with other recent economic indicators, the weakness was partly due to temporary factors and the numbers have yet to reflect... 8th September 2015 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Economics Update How big a deal is the Zohr gas field for Egypt? The recent announcement by Italian energy group Eni that it has discovered a “super giant” gas field off the coast of Egypt has been billed as a game changer for the country. However, as we explain in... 8th September 2015 · 1 min read
Energy Update US natural gas prices set to recover Persistently low prices mean that we have revised down our end-2015 and end-2016 forecasts for the price of US natural gas. However, we still expect prices to rise substantially over the next few... 7th September 2015 · 1 min read
Africa Economics Update Africa’s much-touted “rise” stalls in 2015 A combination of low commodity prices and domestic weaknesses will drag growth in Sub-Saharan Africa down to around 3.3% this year, a very grim figure for a region often touted as the “next China”. 7th September 2015 · 1 min read
Commodities Weekly Better news from China to outweigh first Fed hike The prices of key industrial commodities, notably oil, have been relatively calm in the last few days, helped by the holidays that closed China’s equity markets. Nonetheless, the robust US employment... 4th September 2015 · 1 min read
Canada Economics Weekly Some cautionary thoughts on June’s GDP The widely talked about 0.5% m/m gain in June’s GDP doesn’t convince us that the economy is on the path to recovery. Close examination of the data reveals that nearly half of this growth was due to... 4th September 2015 · 1 min read
Metals Chart Pack Safe-haven demand drives gold and platinum higher The performance of the major precious metals diverged sharply in August, with gold and platinum outperforming their sister metals, silver and palladium. A further slump in Chinese equities and... 4th September 2015 · 1 min read
Energy Chart Pack China in the driving seat August proved to be another tough month for energy commodities with oil and coal prices slumping on worries about demand, prompted by the drop in the Chinese equity market. However, a further round of... 4th September 2015 · 1 min read
Metals Chart Pack Prices regain some lost ground After falling steadily throughout August, in large part associated with a plunge in Chinese equities, the prices of most industrial metals have rallied in the last week. That said, the S&P GSCI... 4th September 2015 · 1 min read
Europe Economics Weekly Fragile euro-zone recovery needs more ECB support Despite the better tone to the economic data coming out of the euro-zone in recent weeks, we still expect growth to slow in the second half of the year as the twin tailwinds of the lower oil price and... 4th September 2015 · 1 min read
