The price of copper rose this week 1.8% with respect to the previous after closing Friday at 2,815 dollars due to optimism among investors for the development of the commercial negotiations between is States United of America and China, said the Chilean copper Commission (Cochilco).
Despite this, said Cochilco, the announcement of the US President, Donald Trump, who will not meet with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, before March 1, theoretical deadline for negotiations between U.S. and China on trade, has elevated the aversion to the risk and has impacted the price of the red metal.
“In general, is expected to increase in the volatility of the price of the metal to approaching the date limit for closure of the trade negotiations”, Cochilco said.
In China, the world’s leading consumer of copper, the market was closed this week by the welcome in the lunar new year festivities, but next week will be published relevant economic data like the foreign trade.
In Europe, the most relevant economic news for the price of copper is the lowering of the growth expectations for the eurozone that made the European Commission, said Cochilco.
According to these forecasts, the block will grow 1.3 per cent in 2019 compared with 1.9% in 2018, and will recover in 2020 with an increase of 1.6%, less optimistic figures that spread the European Commission in November of last year.
“Although all the countries of the bloc will continue to grow for the seventh consecutive year, the countries with more economic weight braked significantly its expansion”, said Cochilco, stressed that Europe represents 16% of the world demand for copper.
Countries where growth will suffer a further slowdown are Germany and Italy, the two main consumers of the metal.
Inventories stored in bags of metals recorded a weekly drop of 5.523 metric tons, equivalent to a decrease of 0.5%.
So far in the year, inventories accumulated an increase of 3.6% compared to the end of 2018.
