As the cost consumers pay for goods remains subdued but input costs rise, pushed by commodity-cost inflation, input-price inflation has the potential to hit margins and thus profitability.

FORBES

It is the cost to consumers, i.e. the cost after transportation, which is the parity price, not the cost of the commodity in its native land.

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Dismal consumer confidence is cited as a source of concern, along with further commodity price instability - most notably the cost of energy.

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Time tested economic theory tells us that in a free, unfettered market not constrained by onerous barriers to entry, the long term price of a commodity will approach its marginal cost of production.

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In the long run, the price of any given commodity should revert to the cost of producing an incremental unit of supply.

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Procrastination of this variety is especially dangerous because of the preeminent power of the commodity of time and the compounding nature of opportunity cost, or the price of lost opportunity.

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Its purchases of foreign assets keep the cost of capital down and its appetite for raw materials keeps their price up, to the benefit of commodity producers wherever they sell their wares.

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