Metal prices hurt commodity index

Weaker metal prices in May helped push the all-commodity price index of Scotiabank down by 1% from April.

“Base metal prices moved significantly lower in May and June. Copper and nickel are still at profitable levels, but zinc, lead and aluminum prices cover no more than average cash costs in the Western world,” senior economist Patricia Mohr said.

On an annualized basis, the all-items index is off by 8.1%. However, commodity prices “remain slightly above the trough in the 1982 recession,” Mohr said.

The metals and minerals sub-index dropped by 4.4% in May and is off by 10.4% from a year ago.

The all-commodity index tracks export prices of a variety of Canadian commodities, which are weighted according to their 1984 export values, except crude oil where the value of net exports is used.