Cotton, grain, gold and meat prices skyrocketing on foreign markets
Raw material prices have been following a significantly upward
trend worldwide this year, and the impact on Romania is getting
stronger and stronger, even if not taking into account the VAT
hike.
The Statistics Institute yesterday announced a 0.55% monthly
inflation in October, which explains last week's nervousness of the
NBR officials when it came to talking about prices.
The high growth of the resource-intensive emerging economies, as
well as the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of injections by
Federal Reserve are some of the causes of a new boom of prices of
raw materials - be they foods or non-foods, after the 2008 boom,
which was offset by the major financial crisis.
Wheat was the first to go up in price in 2010. Then the other types
of grain become more expensive, followed by basic metals and by
meat products.
The price increase does not seem to stop here, though,
international analysts forecast. Next year the trend of the raw
material prices could become the main reason for concern of the
authorities, given that the wheat price may double, say prestigious
foreign business publications.
Wall Street Journal and Financial Times are now talking about new
record highs in terms of raw material prices in the near
future.
Cotton is the last of a number of raw materials whose prices
reached all time highs. Gold, silver and grain saw their prices
rise fast on commodities exchanges throughout the world, yet none
of them can equal cotton's performance - a 100% increase in 2010 to
3.36 dollars per kilo.