World Perspectives

Economy and Trade Policy Impacts on Commodities

The Producer Price Index (PPI), which measures the price received by producers when they sell their output, fell for the second consecutive month in January with a drop of 0.10 percent. Over the past three months, the PPI is down at an annualized rate of 0.3 percent. But the decline is being driven by the ag and energy sectors, which might be good for the overall economy, but bad for ag and energy. Food inflation was down 1.7 percent last month, and energy dropped 3.8 percent, the only two categories to fall. Even within the commodities sector, metals rose. This means everything else in the economy is seeing an increase in prices except agriculture and energy. Thus, core inflation (i.e., inflation minus food and energy) is up 2.6 percent o...

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From WPI Consulting

Forecasting developments in production agriculture

On behalf of a private U.S. agricultural technology provider, WPI’s team generated an econometric model to forecast the movement of concentrated corn production north and west from the traditional U.S. Corn Belt. WPI’s model has subsequently provided quantitative support to a multi-million-dollar investment into short-season corn variety development. WPI’s methodology included a series of interviews with regional grain elevators and seed consultants. Emphasizing outreach and communication with stakeholders who possess intimate sectoral knowledge – on-the-ground insights – is a regular component of WPI’s methodologies, made possible by WPI’s ever-growing network of industry contacts.

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