prices of commodities like crude oil and iron ore have been sliding this year underlining a continuing economic rout across the globe and possible recession risks market watchers told cnbc global commodities have seen a more than 25 slump over the last 12 months as reflected by the sp gsci commodities index a benchmark measuring the wider performance of various commodity markets out of the different baskets of commodities industrial metals have slid 379 during that period up to june 30 while energy commodities like oil and gas have slipped 23 conversely agricultural commodities such as grain wheat and sugar have gained roughly 11 but the overall slide for the index is likely pointing to a global economic slowdown and a recession analysts say as chinas covid19 rebound loses momentum iron ore and copper are good barometers of the very cyclical portions of the global economy including construction and manufacturing of which are in recession in many places kplers senior commodity analyst reid ianson said via email it is my belief that this will flow through to a broader decline in economic activity especially in the west ianson added he foresees that the us will likely see a gdp contraction in the fourth quarter of this year or 2024s first quarter and that europe will follow suit in three to six months the failure of the chinese economy to live up to the expectations of the market is the biggest reason commodity markets are struggling to find a footing ianson continued china has been posting a slew of economic data that has been weaker than market expectations pointing to a faltering covid reopening after years of strict lockdowns bank of america analysts confirm that chinas rebound has been weaker than expected especially for property investment dropped 7 yearonyear said the banks head of asiapacific basic materials and oil‎  gas research matty zhao a property market decline is often associated with a drop in demand for construction materials like steel aluminum copper and nickel chinas real estate sector slump is predicted to last for years according to wall street banks and the chinese government doesnt look like its going to pursue an aggressive fiscal stimulus package said ianson even if it does it would need to be sizable to impress markets at this point biggest losers and what it means while prices of soft commodities are rising as el niño hammers crop output prospects energy and industrial metals are trading a lot lower among the biggest losers of the commodities slide are iron ore and oil the analysts concur kpler has cited the downbeat prospects of copper as well which acts as a proxy economic pulse check due to its various uses such as electrical equipment and industrial machinery oil prices have declined significantly with the global benchmark brent plunging 3476 yearonyear even as opecs output cuts come into play weak energy consumption in europe in part due to a warm winter has led to gas storage surging to pastfive year high levels in the eu and pushed down prices said zhao additionally the worlds largest oil importer china has been ramping up coal production instead amid a power crunch that being said in the event of an extreme cold weather event energy prices may recover in the second half of the year zhao forecasts according to bofa the yeartodate average of steel and iron ore prices dropped 16 yearonyear on the back of sluggish construction demand poor construction demand also reflects in other building materials like cement whose inventory levels have reached 75 iron ore is primarily used to make steel an important material in construction and engineering projects