From Africa Recovery, Vol.12#4 (April 1999), Briefs page

Low commodity prices hit African economies

With three-quarters of sub-Saharan Africa's export revenues coming from primary commodities, the region is expected to be hardest hit by the record low global commodity prices of the last two years, says the World Bank in the first report of its Global Commodity Markets series.

In some cases, prices have plunged to lows that are one-third of 1995 levels. But the price declines span the entire range of commodity sectors, with rubber prices down some 65 per cent from the 1995 level and nickel, copper and other base metal prices down 50 per cent. Lower oil prices will take a heavy toll on African oil producers such as Nigeria and Angola. Oil prices dipped to a 12-year low of less than $10 a barrel last year, from a high of about $22 some 20 months ago.

The falling prices were due more to technology advances and policy changes in commodity-producing countries than to changes in demand patterns, the report says.

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