Down 2.1% last week, IHS Materials Price Index tracks lower for third week

Lacklustre Chinese manufacturing data, coupled with moves by regulators to crack down on risky investments, is fuelling concern that Chinese demand growth is set to decelerate and that it had pushed down commodity prices over the last three weeks, market intelligence firm IHS Markit said in a statement Thursday. Economist Cole Hassay pointed out that the IHS Materials Price Index (MPI) dropped 2.1% last week, as eight of the ten sub-indices fell. The MPI has now declined 11.2% from its mid-February high.