How do world commodity prices affect Asian commodity exporting economies? The role of financial frictions

This note examines how recent volatile fluctuations of world commodity prices due to the COVID-19 shock affect Asian commodity exporting economies. Our analysis shows that a drop in world commodity prices has a significant negative impact on output, consumption, and investment of sample countries. However, the impact on trade balance is positive in some countries and negative in others. The difference between these two groups is attributable to whether world commodity prices affect each country’s interest rate spreads. © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.