In this place we regularly published the HWWA Index of World Market Prices which has been computed since the fifties and was a comprehensive indicator of the price movements of the major raw materials traded in the world markets. Unavoidably, an, index of this kind has to be adjusted from time...

The decline of most world commodity prices came to an end in recent months. The aggregate dollar price level was 15 per cent lower in the first quarter of 1999 compared to a year previously, and since autumn 1997 it even decreased by about 30 per cent. Oil prices fell particularly sharply, but...