new China Syndrome: Commodity price boom sets alarm bells ringing [View All]

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The new China Syndrome: Commodity price boom sets alarm bells ringing
Mining firms cash in but policymakers increasingly worried over inflationary threat
By Philip Thornton, Economics Correspondent
25 February 2004


There is a major economic boom gripping the world - an asset price bubble perhaps - but few people in the UK will have noticed. Prices of a vast range of commodities, from cement through coal to copper, have surged over the past year and the root cause is another C-word - China.

The world's most populous country is sucking in the world's raw materials at an unprecedented rate to feed its domestic economic boom. It imported 30 per cent more oil last year than in 2003, making it the world's second largest importer after the United States. It accounts for half of the world's consumption of cement, a third of its coal and more than a third of its steel, according to Barclays Capital.



http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news_analysis/story.jsp?story=494776