Abstract
Commodity prices experienced a strong recovery during 1987, after the steep decline of 1984–86. By December 1987 the Fund’s index of non-oil commodity prices was about 15 percent above the level of a year earlier in terms of SDRs, and some 30 percent higher in terms of the depreciating U.S. dollar. All commodity groups shared in the recovery, but the greatest strength came in agricultural raw materials and metals. The surge in prices of industrial inputs can be attributed to the pick-up in economic activity in industrial countries under conditions of relatively depleted levels of stocks of these commodities, following several years of production cutbacks owing to low prices. The recovery in food prices was less marked than that of industrial inputs, in part because of historically high levels of inventories at the beginning of the year. The recovery in prices of tropical beverages, which are particularly important in the exports of many developing countries, was both relatively weak and significantly delayed, occurring only in the second half of the year.