The three commodities to watch in 2025

By Matthieu Favas, Commodities editor, The Economist

FOR MUCH of 2024 commodity prices were driven by low demand. America slowed down and economic woes worsened in China, the world’s biggest importer of raw materials. So prices for everything from coal and cobalt to natural gas are lingering at levels that prevailed before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. For many commodities, this outlook—depressing for traders but helpful to Western central bankers—will carry through to 2025.