Copper prices have hit one-week highs due to expectations of stronger demand after authorities in top consumer China said they would take measures aimed at bolstering growth and liquidity. Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange ended up 0.3 per cent at $US6,242 a tonne. It earlier touched $US6,331.50 a tonne, the highest since October 15.
China’s central bank governor said last week it would roll out targeted measures to help ease company financing problems and encourage commercial banks to boost lending to private firms. China’s tax cuts next year could exceed the equivalent of one per cent of gross domestic product, a central bank adviser said, in a sign policymakers might be considering another round of tax reductions.
China’s economic growth cooled to its weakest quarterly pace since the global financial crisis, with regulators moving quickly to calm nervous investors as a years-long campaign to tackle debt risks and the trade war with the United States began to bite.
China accounts for about half of global copper demand, estimated this year at around 24 million tonnes.
