notes FROM THE POVERTY REDUCTION AND ECONOMIC MANAGEMENT NETWORK The World Bank Natural Resources and Development Strategy

after the Crisis Recent events have rekindled interest in the role of primary commodities in develop-ment. Was the boom in commodity prices from around 2003 through 2008 just a cycli-cal event, or does it suggest that prices have entered on a period of secular strength, driven by factors such as demand in big, fast-growing developing countries like China? It is notable that, while commodity prices fell sharply from their peak in 2008 with the onset of the global recession, they gener-ally remained much higher than previous recession lows, often as high as in 2005–07, a period of robust world growth. Furthermore