A small rebound in commodity prices

The last month has shown a slight recovery in commodity prices. So far, the overall commodity index has increased by 4.2% in May 2020. If this increase persists to the end of the month, it will be the first month in 2020, where the Kairos Commodity Index shows a positive monthly change. As visible from the figure below, all indices, except Grains and Oilseeds, and Plastic, have been increasing in May.

The Energy index has shown the largest increase of 25.8%, thereby counteracting some of the recent periods' substantial price declines. The main driver behind the increase in the Energy index is the rebound in oil prices. The WTI Crude Oil price has increased by 62.9%, while the cost of Brent Crude Oil has risen by 32.5%. The index experiencing the greatest reduction over the past three years as well as this month is the Plastic index. The index has been steadily decreasing, due to the majority of plastic prices falling. In general, prices have been slightly more stable this month, but the volatility remains high, which indicates large price uncertainty.