Low income developing countries have experienced incomplete adjustment to the new world of "lower for long" commodities prices, with many commodity exporters still far from a sustainable macroeconomic trajectory, said the IMF in its latest report.

According to its research, the IMF found that, with the sharp adjustments of commodity prices into its third year, many commodity exporters remained under significant economic stress, with sluggish growth, large fiscal imbalances, and weakened foreign reserve positions.

The average output growth of the fuel exporters dropped to -1.6 percent by 2016 from 5.7 percent in 2014; the non-fuel commodity exporters experienced much milder growth shock with its average growth slowing to 3.8 percent by 2016 from 5.3 percent in 2014; while diversified exporters have mainly benefited from the adjustment of commodity prices, with growth running at 6 percent or above in many countries.

In face of the sluggish growth, two thirds of the commodities exporters were facing high macroeconomic vulnerabilities, said the IMF.

It estimated that more than half of commodities exporters were facing an elevated risk of financial sector stress over the next 18 months, which could result in bank failures and supervisory interventions, and one quarter of low income countries are currently assessed to be at high risk of external debt distress.

IMF called on low income countries to strengthen financial sector supervision, improve fiscal risk management and promote infrastructure investment to increase productivity.

The price has since come off the boil, official customs data from China, responsible for some 45% of global consumption of the red metal, released overnight is helping the metal attempt these height again.

Copper futures trading on New York Comex added a couple of pennies trading near its day high of $2.6915 per pound ($5,934 a tonne) in lunchtime dealings. Copper is up 5.7% this week toCopper price jumps as China imports hit all-time high a one-month high.

China's refined copper imports surged nearly 30% to 490,000 tonnes in December compared to November, boosting imports for 2016 to a new record of 4.95 million tonnes, up just under 3% compared to the 2015 total.

Concentrate imports soared in 2016, with volumes gaining 28% year on year hitting an all-time high of 16.96 million tonnes for the year. December imports declined only 5% from the monthly record of 1.76 million tonnes in November.

Chinese imports compare to global mined production of an estimated 20.4 million tonnes per year.

After underperforming other metals and steelmaking raw materials for the better part of 2016, copper has been playing catch-up and is now up 40% from six-year lows hit mid-January last year.

Trade figures released overnight showed China imported just under 89 million tonnes of iron ore in December, down 3.2% month on month. The value of imports for December was the highest since September 2014 with the benchmark price averaging just under $80 during the month.

Forging more than half the world's steel, Chinese imports of iron ore for the full year 2016 topped one billion tonnes for the first time. The 1.024 billion tonnes constitute a 7.5% increase over the annual total in 2015 and is indicative to what extent exporters from Brazil and Australia has been able to displace domestic producers struggling with low grades and high costs.

The total value of cargoes climbed to just under $58 billion, with the average import price over the course of 2016 at $56.50 per tonne. The all-time record in terms of dollar value was set in January 2014, when the country imported $11.3 billion worth of iron ore back when prices were firmly in triple digit territory.

The all-time record for monthly Chinese imports in terms of volume was in December 2015 with shipments totalling 96.3 million tonnes. But the price of iron ore fell to below $40 a tonne, the lowest in nearly a decade during that month, pushing the value of shipments below $5 billion.

The iron ore price has doubled in value over the past year following near-decade lows of $37 a tonne in December last year according to data supplied by The Steel Index.

The news comes after warming relations with the West following Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential elections.

“The time has probably come to understand that the sanctions may soon be halted,” Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said today at the Gaidar Forum, an economic conference held in Moscow.

However, this change will not come immediately. Legally, the sanctions end on December 31, 2017, and Shuvalov did not exclude the possibility that they could be further extended.

Still, his words give hope to Russians longing for the taste of Italian parmesan or Polish apples – both of which disappeared from supermarket shelves after the embargo’s imposition.

“All players on the market should be prepared for [the sanctions’ cancellation],” Shuvalov said. “Whether they’ll be extended or not – that’s a question of politics.”

In August 2014, Russian authorities imposed sanctions against food products produced in the European Union, the United States, and several other Western countries. The embargo came as a response to Western sanctions on Russia for annexing the Crimean peninsula and intervening in eastern Ukraine.

The sanctions led the authorities to summarily bulldoze and otherwise destroy pallets of food products deemed illegal under the embargo. It also contributed to a rapid decrease in the quality and safety of food sold in Russian supermarkets.

Representatives from the Japanese embassies in 20 African countries will gather on Tuesday and Wednesday in Pretoria, the capital of South Africa. The Foreign Ministry says the meeting will be the first of its kind.

The participants will discuss what specific assistance they can extend to Japanese firms trying to do business in Africa.

Some African countries are politically unstable and tensions often exist between ethnic groups in those countries. Thus, building ties with influential government figures is deemed crucial for firms wishing to operate on the continent.
The Japanese diplomatic missions have long been reluctant to directly support private firms.

Japan is now lagging behind China in securing drilling rights for oil and mineral resources in Africa. Last year, China acquired the rights for large-scale copper and cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Chinese government is known to be working aggressively to acquire such rights in Africa by working jointly with the private sector.

Ministry officials say Japan's advanced technology and investment, when aligned with the needs of African countries, will generate meaningful results for all the parties.

The city in southern Guangdong province plans to build 10 overseas innovation centers in countries and regions where there are abundant resources - such as the US, Canada and Europe - to absorb and make use of the innovative skilled staff located there.

Shenzhen Mayor Xu Qin mapped out the initiative in his government work report on Friday, when the Shenzhen people's congress kicked off.

"We will formulate special plans to support enterprises and organizations, to set up 10 innovation centers overseas to create an international collaborative innovation platform and gather innovative talent from across the world," Xu said, adding that the first four will start construction this year.

"To implement the action plans of Internet Plus and 'Made in China 2025', we also plan to build 10 manufacturing innovation centers in such areas as robotics, 3D printing and new energy vehicles to enhance our capability in high-end, precise and smart manufacturing," Xu added.

Known as the country's innovation hub, Shenzhen has been taking the lead in China in pursuing an innovation-driven economic development model.

Investment in research and development by the city amounted to more than 80 billion yuan ($11.6 billion) last year, accounting for 4.1 percent of its total gross domestic product. The number of its national high-tech companies increased by 2,513 in 2016, triple the growth a year earlier, to 8,037.