During the 2000s, the price of Brent Crude rose above $30 a barrel in 2003 before peaking at $147.30 in July 2008. With the onset of the Great Recession, reduced demand for oil caused the price to fall to $39 per barrel in December 2008.[4]
Global commodity prices fell 38% between June 2014 and February 2015. Demand and supply conditions led to lower price expectations for all nine of the World Bank's commodity price indices – an extremely rare occurrence. The commodity price shock in the second half of 2014 cannot be attributed to any single factor or defining event.[6] It was caused by a host of industry-specific, macroeconomic and financial factors which came together to cause the simultaneous large drops across many different commodity classes. Amongst these, the transition of China's economy to more sustainable levels of growth and the shale-energy boom in the United States were the dominant demand-side and supply-side factors governing the downturn in global commodity prices.[7]
On April 20, 2020, WTI's May contract closed at -$37.63/barrel while the June contract closed at positive $20.43/barrel. The main cause is due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which has reduced demand along with storage issues and the expiration of the May contract the following day.[8]
^Saggu, A.; Anukoonwattaka, W. (2015). "Global Commodity Price Falls: A Transitory Boost to Economic Growth in Asia-Pacific Countries with Special Needs". United Nations ESCAP. SSRN2617574. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
^Saggu, A.; Anukoonwattaka, W. (2015). "Commodity Price Crash: Risks to Exports and Economic Growth in Asia-Pacific LDCs and LLDCs". United Nations ESCAP. SSRN2617542. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)