Twenty five years of zinc price history put the recent rise and fall of the price of a metric tonne in perspective.
Play with the data, now updated with February 2009 prices, by clicking on the graph.
Author Archives: Miguel Barrientos
Are commodity prices recovering?
I just finished uploading January 2009 data to the historical commodity prices section. I noticed right away that the sharp fall of all commodity price indices that started in July 2008 seems to have stopped sometime between December of last year and January of this year. Take a look at the overall Commodity Price Index for example.
One data point does not a trend make, but January 2009 looks a lot better to commodity producers than December 2008.
One final note: February 2009 data will be available in approximately 30 days. I follow the IMF release schedule, which is not fixed.
Oil Price Index Chart
Our 15-year oil price index chart shows that oil prices in November of 2008 are roughly equal to the oil prices of November 2005. The graph also shows that there was a small spike in prices in 2006, followed by a large spike that began in January 2007 and peaked in July 2008.
Embeddable population charts
Any of the charts in the country comparison section can now be embedded and/or copied. Check the example below.
I’m using Google’s chart API to generate the image file. To copy the image, right-click on it and choose copy.
Oil Price Index
A 25 year chart showing the changes in the IMF oil price index puts recent changes in the price of crude oil in perspective. The chart below, showing the oil price index since November of 1983, displays the impressive run-up that started around July of 2007.
Historical Trade Statistics
I just released trade statistics by country and by product. Exports and imports are available for the period 2001-2005. The product groupings belong to the SITC Rev. 3 international standard. The primary data source is the commerce and trade database maintained by the United Nations.
Historical Commodity Prices
I just updated the historical commodity prices section with the latest IMF data. Historical data for 8 price indices and 49 commodities now includes June 2008 numbers. I’m including a chart showing that the aggregate commodity price index, i.e. the index that tracks energy, metals, food, and raw materials, continued its upward march in June. It increased 5.7% with respect to May 2008, 32.6% with respect to January 2008, and 62% with respect to June 2007. Inflation has clearly become a serious problem around the World.
Click on the image above to play with the data
Thematic Maps
I just finished a major upgrade to the thematic map engine. It can now generate color-coded maps (choropleths) for individual countries. Check out the following examples:
I have population data for several other countries. I will soon make it easier to discover which country maps are available.
World Oil Consumption
The energy statistics section now includes regional production and consumption charts. The regions available are:
- World
- North America
- Central America & the Caribbean
- South America
- Africa
- Asia
- Europe
- Oceania
- Antarctica
Production and consumption numbers are available for coal, crude oil, dry natural gas, hydroelectric power, natural gas plant liquids, nuclear power, and alternative fuels. Leave me a comment if you find the new charts useful.
Commodity Price Data in Excel Format
Today I released two improvements to the commodity prices section. First, all price tables can be exported to Excel by clicking on a link located directly below the last row of each table (Example: Commodity Price Index from 1993 to 2008)
Second, the entry page now contains a graph showing the main commodity price indices.
I hope you find these two new features helpful. Your comments and feedback are welcome.