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Table of Contents

  1. Topic pack - Development economics - introduction
  2. 4.1 Economic development (notes)
  3. 4.1 Economic development (questions)
  4. 4.2 Measuring Economic Development (notes)
  5. 4.2 Measuring development (questions)
  6. 4.3 The role of domestic factors in economic development (notes)
  7. 4.3 The role of domestic factors in economic development (questions)
  8. 4.4 The role of international trade (notes)
    1. Role of international trade - introduction
    2. Trade problems (LDCs)
    3. Problems - over-dependence on primary products
    4. Price volatility of primary products
    5. Consequences of price volatility
    6. Price increases can also be problematic!
    7. Price volatility case study - tomatoes
    8. Price volatility case study - copper
    9. Trade strategies for growth and development
    10. Import substitution
    11. Import substitution case study - sorghum
    12. Export promotion
    13. Export promotion case study - Thai toy industry
    14. Trade liberalization
    15. The role of the World Trade Organization
    16. Background information
    17. The Doha round
    18. Case study - trade sanctions
    19. Bilateral and regional preferential trade agreements
    20. Case study of a bilateral preferential trade agreement
    21. Case study of a multilateral preferential trade agreement
    22. Some background reading
    23. Diversification
    24. Case study - diversification
    25. Diversification in Malawi - video
    26. Some background reading
  9. 4.4 The role of international trade (questions)
  10. 4.5 The role of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) (notes)
  11. 4.5 The role of foreign direct investment (questions)
  12. 4.6 The role of foreign aid and multilaterial development assistance (notes)
  13. 4.6 The role of foreign aid and multilateral development assistance (questions)
  14. 4.7 The role of international debt (notes)
  15. 4.7 The role of international debt (questions)
  16. 4.8 The balance between markets and intervention (notes)
  17. 4.8 The balance between markets and intervention (questions)
  18. Print View
  • Price volatility of primary products (Plus Page 101, 102,103,104)


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What the data shows


 Copper Coffee Cocoa Oil

Copper, $/mt, current Coffee, Arabica, cents/kg, current Cocoa, cents/kg, current Crude oil, avg, spot, $/bbl, current
1960 678.7558 92.35167 58.90167 1.63
1961 633.0842 89.55417 47.85583 1.57
1962 645.1433 83.25917 45.79667 1.52
1963 645.9508 80.57417 55.23417 1.5
1964 969.7533 100.9758 50.57417 1.45
1965 1292.844 100.035 36.53083 1.42
1966 1531.513 92.8725 51.76333 1.36
1967 1134.773 86.42083 59.81167 1.33
1968 1241.952 86.7 72.08833 1.32
1969 1467.34 87.6725 89.77167 1.27
1970 1415.7 114.6617 67.5 1.21
1971 1081.417 99.1875 53.8 1.69
1972 1057.675 110.9592 64.4 1.82
1973 1785.358 137.345 113.1 2.8075
1974 2058.5 145.1533 156.1 10.975
1975 1234.75 144.2125 124.6 10.4325
1976 1400.75 314.6658 204.575 11.63
1977 1308.75 516.8867 379.0067 12.565
1978 1364.833 358.9992 340.3158 12.91667
1979 1985.258 382.6133 329.2833 30.96458
1980 2182.092 346.6283 260.3492 36.86875
1981 1741.95 286.855 207.955 35.485
1982 1480.442 308.7558 173.5617 32.64722
1983 1591.925 291.1258 211.9867 29.65778
1984 1377.317 318.8658 239.5992 28.5575
1985 1417.383 323.0792 225.445 27.18333
1986 1373.782 429.2583 206.9617 14.35
1987 1782.503 250.4983 199.4217 18.14583
1988 2601.672 303.3708 158.46 14.71806
1989 2848.41 238.7308 124.1033 17.83889
1990 2661.483 197.22 126.6667 22.87917
1991 2338.783 187.3392 119.5058 19.37083
1992 2281.157 141.1917 109.9567 19.02083
1993 1913.077 156.02 111.6925 16.84167
1994 2307.418 330.7642 139.5967 15.88667
1995 2935.606 333.2325 143.2425 17.18333
1996 2294.857 269.4208 145.5567 20.42
1997 2276.767 416.7942 161.8733 19.17104
1998 1654.058 298.1317 167.6383 13.06444
1999 1572.861 229.0583 113.5317 18.07139
2000 1813.469 191.9667 90.57917 28.22972
2001 1578.288 137.3117 106.8733 24.35183
2002 1559.478 135.6608 177.7858 24.92775
2003 1779.145 141.5385 175.0877 28.8989
2004 2865.885 177.3984 154.9849 37.73339
2005 3678.876 253.2171 153.812 53.39102
2006 6722.135 252.2104 159.1902 64.28826
2007 7118.226 272.3698 195.2269 71.11656
2008 6955.88 308.1599 257.7116 96.99045
2009 5149.739 317.1143 288.875 61.75692
2010 7534.78 432.01 313.2988 79.04077
2011 9475.87 632.6995 324.9374 104.7124


Enter the above commodity price data into a spreadsheet and plot the price data for each commodity over time. (Look out for cyclical movements, trends, patterns, relationships). For convenience, you may prefer to download a csv version (suitable for use in any spreadsheet program.

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  1. Describe how price data for each of the commodities shown varies over time.
  2. Identify and explain relationship between the price data of the four commodities.