COMMODITY PRICE INDEX

COMMODITY PRICE INDEX The International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) reckons that cotton supplies will tighten over the 2000-01 season, which began this month. Prices have been falling for five years, touching a low of 44 cents a pound last December. Lower prices compared with synthetic fibres helped to boost world consumption to a record 19.8m tonnes in 1999-2000; it is expected to rise further over the next two years. World output is forecast to remain at 19.1m tonnes. America's crop will be bigger than last year's, but elsewhere output will fall below 15m tonnes for the first time in six years. Uzbekistan, for its part, has been hit by drought. The ICAC reckons that there will be an overall shortage of 900,000 tonnes this season and 600,000 tonnes in 2001-02. By then prices could have risen by 25%, reducing cotton's edge over polyester.