Booms and Slumps in World Commodity Prices

Download or read book Booms and Slumps in World Commodity Prices written by Mr.Paul Cashin and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1999-11-01 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper examines the duration and magnitude of commodity-price cycles. It finds that for most commodities, price slumps last longer than price booms. How far prices fall in a slump is found to be slightly larger than how far they rebound in a subsequent boom. There is little evidence of a consistent ‘shape’ to commodity-price cycles. For all commodities, the probability of an end to a slump in prices is independent of the time already spent in the slump, and for most commodities, the probability of an end to a boom in prices is independent of the time already spent in the boom.