The International Monetary Fund predicted economic contraction this year of 1.4% but raised its expectation of growth next year from 1.9% to 2.5%, resulting in a nice boost for copper prices, according to an analysis on Mineweb.com.
In addition, Chinese growth of 8% is predicted for the current year (even in a boom year, that's an impressive number!). And car sales in China are up almost 48% compared to a year ago. That's good news for copper producers. [right, credit, Freeport McMoRan]