Oil Prices Fall, and the Global Economy Wins
Oil is in the midst of one of its steepest selloffs since the financial crisis, with prices falling 16 percent since mid-June. This has the Saudis contemplating even deeper cuts in oil production to keep prices from declining any further.
It’s not yet clear how well that’s working. The Saudi cuts were offset in part by more oil from Iran, Iraq, and Nigeria—not to mention the continued record increase in U.S. oil production thanks to the shale boom.
But the bigger factor appears to be on the supply side, as production growth outpaces demand. That was the case last year and is shaping up to happen again in 2014.
A new report by Andrew Kenningham, senior global economist at Capital Economics, attempts to gauge the hard-to-measure global economic boost from lower oil prices. “A $10 fall in the price of oil transfers the equivalent of 0.5 percent of world GDP from oil producers to oil consumers,” he writes.
That in turn will have a knock-on effect on global consumption, since consumers tend to spend more of their income than businesses. Assuming consumers spend half their savings for cheaper oil, Kenningham continues, “a $10 fall in the oil price would boost global demand by 0.2 to 0.3 percent.”
Source: businessweek- Oil Prices Fall, and the Global Economy Wins
