I have been reviewing the global financial markets since November 2014 apart from Geo Political impacts sue to low oil pricing and eventually researched few reports; describing the “IMPACT OF LOW OIL PRICES AND HUMAN COST. Following four years of relative stability at around $105 per barrel (bbl), oil prices have declined sharply since June 2014 and are expected to remain low for a considerable period of time. The drop in prices likely marks the end of the commodity super cycle that began in the early 2000s. Since the past episodes of such sharp declines coincided with substantial fluctuations in activity and inflation, the causes and consequences of and policy responses to the recent plunge in oil prices have led to intensive debates.
The sharp fall in oil prices since June 2014 is a significant but not unprecedented event. Over the past three decades, five other episodes of oil price declines of 30 percent or more in a seven-month period occurred, coinciding with major changes in the global economy and oil markets. The latest episode has some significant parallels with the price collapse in 1985-86, which followed a period of strong expansion of supply from non-OPEC countries and the eventual decision by OPEC to forgo price targeting and increase production. Multiple causes. The recent plunge in oil prices has been driven by a number of factors: several years of upward surprises in the production of unconventional oil; weakening global demand; a significant shift in OPEC policy; unwinding of some geopolitical risks; and an appreciation of the U.S. dollar. Although the relative importance of each factor is difficult to pin down, OPEC’s renouncement of price support and rapid expansion of oil supply from unconventional sources appear to have played a crucial role since mid-2014. Empirical estimates also indicate that supply (much more than demand) factors have accounted for the lion’s share of the latest plunge in oil prices. Although the supply capacity of relatively high-cost and flexible producers, such as the shale oil industry in the United States, will need to adjust to lower prices, most of the underlying factors point to lower oil prices persisting over the medium-term, with considerable volatility in global oil markets. Wide ranging consequences. The decline in oil prices will lead to significant real income shifts from oil exporters to oil importers, likely resulting in a net positive effect for global activity over the medium term. A supply-driven decline of 45 percent in oil prices could be associated with a 0.7-0.8 percent increase in global GDP over the medium term and a temporary decline in global inflation of around 1 percentage point in the short term. Activity in oil importers should benefit from lower oil prices since a drop in oil prices raises household and corporate real incomes in a 4 manner similar to a tax cut. While the positive impact for oil importers could be more diffuse and take some time to materialize, the negative impact on exporters is immediate and in some cases accentuated by financial market pressures. However, several factors could counteract the global growth and inflation implications of the lower oil prices. These include weak global demand and limited scope for additional monetary policy easing in many countries. The dis inflationary implications of falling oil prices may be muted by sharp adjustments in currencies and effects of taxes, subsidies, and regulations on prices. While falling oil prices would support activity and reduce inflation globally, some oil-exporting countries may come under stress as falling oil-related revenues put fiscal balances under pressure and exchange rates depreciate on deteriorating growth prospects. Oil price developments may also add to volatility in financial and currency markets and affect capital flows. Investment in the oil industry may fall sharply, not just in oil-exporting countries but also in currently oil-importing countries with potential for oil extraction. Since food production tends to be energy intensive, falling oil prices would likely be accompanied by declining agricultural prices. A 45 percent decline in oil prices could be expected to reduce agricultural commodity prices by about 10 percent. Passed through into domestic food prices, the decline in commodity prices would benefit the majority of the poor. Policy challenges and opportunities. Falling oil prices affect monetary and fiscal policies differently depending on whether a country is an oil importer or exporter. For importers, the pass-through into slowing inflation may ease pressure on central banks and could provide in some cases room for policy accommodation. However, in a generally weak global growth environment and with policy interest rates constrained by the zero lower bound in major economies, monetary policy might need to respond to deflation risks. In the Euro Area and in Japan, several months of outright deflation could contribute to inflation expectations becoming de-anchored from policy objectives. For exporters, central banks will have to balance the need to support growth against the need to contain inflation and currency pressures. Regarding fiscal policy, the loss in oil revenues for exporters will strain public finances, while savings among oil importers could help rebuild fiscal space. Lower oil prices also present a window of opportunity to implement structural reforms. These include, in particular, comprehensive and lasting reforms of fuel subsidies—which tend to have adverse distributional effects and tilt consumption and production toward energy-intensive activities and less environmentally-friendly energy sources—as well as energy taxes more broadly. Fiscal resources released by lower fuel subsidies could either be saved to rebuild fiscal space lost after the global financial crisis or reallocated towards better-targeted programs to assist poor households and support critical infrastructure and human capital investments. In oil-exporting economies, low oil prices reinforce the need to redouble efforts to diversify activity. The pace of the recovery in prices will largely depend on the speed at which supply will adjust to weaker demand conditions. Given that OPEC, for now, appears to have relinquished to its role as swing producer, US shale oil producers, with their relatively short production cycles and low sunk costs, may see the greatest adjustments in the short term. In the longer term, adjustment will take place from both conventional and unconventional sources through cancellation of projects. While supply is likely to be curtailed, demand is expected to pick up, along with the expected recovery in global activity and in line with broader demographic trends. However, predictions on the evolution of oil markets remain highly uncertain. Commodity prices, including oil, tend to be volatile, making forecasting prone to errors. For oil, the unpredictability is further amplified by the possibility of heightened geopolitical tensions and a sudden change in expectations regarding OPEC’s policy objectives. Over the long run, physical (geological) constraints should put upward pressure on the real price of oil, although technological advances could slow the increase. Sharply diverging judgments on recoverable reserves and on future price elasticizes of oil demand and supply imply that oil price forecasts over the long run are subject to wide error bands.
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