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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.
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