Commodity prices set to slide: World Bank

Tokyo

KEY commodity prices are likely to decline across the board in 2015, roiled by the "perfect storm" in oil markets and signalling further weakness in global economic activity, the World Bank said on Friday.

In its latest Commodity Markets Outlook, it said: "This year may well see a rare occurrence for world commodity markets - a decline in all nine key commodity price indices."

It predicts that price declines will include those of precious metals such as gold, which have been rising in recent weeks in the face of growing uncertainty in financial markets over this year's economic and political prospects.

At the same time, the Washington-based Institute of International Finance (IIF) reported that bank lending conditions are continuing to tighten across the world's emerging econom…