| A slowdown in Chinese manufacturing and a sustained effort by OPEC to make shale oil extraction unprofitable have been just two of the factors which have been crushing commodities prices. On December 12, China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported that industrial production increased only 7.2 percent in November, on a year-over-year basis.
While that might be acceptable elsewhere in the world, the reading fell short of economists’ expectations of a 7.5 percent increase. China’s government had been anticipating that economic expansion during 2014 would remain at 7.5 percent. More recently, the People’s Bank of China has lowered its sights to 7.4 percent expansion for this year, followed by a slowdown to 7.1 percent growth in 2015............................................Full Article: Source
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