China’s Hard Landing Will Batter Commodity Markets

Leading economists have started studying the scenarios of possible effects on commodity markets in case China’s growth dips to 3 percent. If China’s growth plummets to 3 percent, Barclays’ economists envisage a scenario with copper prices falling over 60 percent, zinc by over 50 percent and oil prices dropping to $70 a barrel. Shamim Adam of Bloomberg observes that China’s growth has slowed below 8 percent, signifying the longest streak of expansion below 8 percent in at least two decades. Shamim feels the recent economic data reinforces the view that China’s slowdown hasn’t ended. Adam notes a growth target of 7.5…