Raw materials: price will rise until the first months of 2022

Commodity prices will keep on rising in the next months. According to the presidente of the ECB, Christine Lagarde, a turnaround isn’t expected until the first part of the incoming year. The shortage of raw materials, explained the president of the ECB during a hearing in front of the European Parliament which was held on 15 November, will thus continue to constrain the production of the manufacturing industry,  but the inflationary pressure, especially the one related to gas and oil, could nevertheless cool down in the 2022. Also in Italy shortages and high prices caused a slowdown in industrial production. According to a survey conducted in November by the Confindustria (the organization representing italian industries) among its associated companies, the production dropped by 0.1% in September and by 0.2% in August, after the good performances recorded in the first months of the year. Achille Fornasini, professor at the University of Brescia and coordinator of the economic observatory of Anima (the association representing mechanical companies within Confindustria), underlines that the post-lockdown supplyings race has generated an imbalance between supply and demand, which triggered sudden increases in the prices of most of the raw materials currently used in industrial processing and of commodities in the energy sector. "Natural gas - observes Fornasini - has seen its prices at record levels with repercussions on the production costs of electricity".