Commodity prices have experienced significant swings over the past two decades. Real commodity prices have on average more than doubled in the last decade compared to the previous one while the prices of some commodities such as copper and other industrial metals have more than tripled in real terms. ...

In the early 90’s a literature emerged emphasizing the role of external factors in explaining business cycle fluctuations in emerging countries. In particular changes in the terms of trade and world interest rates are generally viewed as the main external factors affecting these economies. Additionally ...