The Covid-19 pandemic has caused economic catastrophe on a scale not seen for decades.

So why are the prices of goods such as copper, iron ore and soy beans surging and can commodities

keep climbing?

You're listening to Money Talks on Economist Radio, our weekly podcast on the markets,

the economy and the world of business.

We're going to start a new topic on Patrick Lane and coming up on today's show.

Two weeks in, what does the 11th hour Brexit trade deal mean in practice for businesses

on both sides of the channel?

And is it possible to count the economic cost of Covid-19?

Perhaps not, but we have a go anyway.

But first, in 2020, the biggest commodity price story was one of decline.

As the pandemic halted travel, oil prices fell off a cliff, then briefly went subterranean.

In April, a futures contract for West Texas intermediate was worth less than nothing.

But for other commodities, 2020 was not all bad.

In the past week, soy beans have hit a six year high, the price of a ton of copper exceeded

$8,000 for the first time since early 2013.

And iron ore is threatening to match a record price not approached for a decade.

Could this be the start of an extraordinary ascent?

Well, the big commodity story in 2020 was this enormous implosion in oil prices.

Charlotte Howard is our energy and commodities editor.

But if you look at other commodities, it was actually a pretty remarkable rally for an

asset class that had been out of favor for a long time.

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