Star-cross’d consumers

摘要

Simmering geopolitical tensions between the US and China belie their similarities as huge raw material consumers. In the oil market, at least, there is more that unites the world’s two largest demand centres than divides them. The Opec+ alliance’s plan to relax production constraints is not moving quickly enough for policy makers in Beijing and Washington sensitive to infationary pressures. Two countries, both alike in dignity, are also both alike in their recourse to selling strategic stocks while prices, for them, remain uncomfortably high.