China economy may grow 4 times faster than EU, Japan
(Bloomberg)
Updated: 2005-12-30 16:09

Commodities

Rising demand in the world's second-largest oil consumer and biggest user of copper and coal will help buoy commodity prices that reached record highs last year, even as the rate of economic growth eases.

"China is such a big user of commodities now because of its emergence as a manufacturing base and that's raising demand," said Tobin Gorey, commodities strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney. "We do expect to see prices stabilizing especially for commodities where supplies have increased. But the slowdown is really not material."

China's economic growth next year will be the slowest since an 8.3 percent gain in 2002. The weakening reflects a lower contribution to growth from trade and masks rising demand from domestic consumers and companies, said economists including Jonathan Anderson at UBS AG.