Commodity prices remain high – should you buy into the boom?

Commodity prices are high – what does this mean for the 'everything rally'?

Copper granules at a scrap facility.
(Image credit: Bloomberg Creative)

“Global growth is tepid, but commodity prices remain high,” say Carlos Arteta, Philip Kenworthy and Ayhan Kose in a World Bank blog. Energy, food and base metals prices are predicted to stay close to 40% above 2015-2019 levels over the coming year. Why? 

For one thing, oil supplies are tight. As of late June, members of the Opec+ cartel were holding back more than six million barrels of oil a day – nearly 7% of global demand. Second, geopolitical shocks are multiplying – much of the current commodity tension dates from the destabilisation of energy and grain markets caused by Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine

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Markets editor

Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019. 

Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere. 

He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful. 

Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.