Economic Impacts of Oil Price Fluctuations in Developed and Developing Economies

Abstract

This chapter assess the impact of crude oil price movements on two macroeconomic variables—gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate and the consumer price index inflation rate—in three economies: the United States and Japan (developed economies) and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) (emerging economy). These economies were chosen for this research because they are the world’s three largest oil consumers. The main objective of this research is to see whether these economies are still reactive to oil price movements. The results obtained suggest that the impact of oil price fluctuations on developed oil importers’ GDP growth is much milder than on the GDP growth of an emerging economy. On the other hand, however, the impact of oil price fluctuations on the PRC’s inflation rate was found to be milder than in the two developed economies that were examined.