“What a difference a year makes,” John Butcher, principal economist at commodity consultancy Wood Mackenzie exclaimed during a technical programme at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, providing a global economic and commodity outlook over the medium term.
While global economic growth came in at a disappointing 2.3% in 2016, with 2017 growth pegged at 2.5% and 2018 at 2.7%, several analysts outlined bullish long-term scenarios for base and precious metals, pointing to growing supply gaps from 2020 onwards in key economic inputs.
