Energy prices suffered the most among commodities in the pandemic—especially oil prices—and they won’t be rising much next year either, averaging just $44 a barrel, the World Bank said in its semi-annual Commodity Markets Outlook report on Thursday. While agricultural and metal commodities have already recouped losses from COVID-19, oil prices will not recover to pre-pandemic levels at least until 2022, according to the World Bank. “Notwithstanding steep production cuts, the recovery in oil prices has stalled recently amid concerns about renewed COVID-19 infections and their impact on oil consumption,” the bank said in its report . Next year, oil demand in almost all countries will still be lower than in 2019, except in China, and as a result, oil prices will not move much higher than today’s levels in the low $40s. The World Bank expects oil to average $44 per barrel next year, slightly up from an […]