JP Morgan economists say global oil demand finally shrinking

  • Share
  • Read Later

Some fun facts just in from JP Morgan’s economics team (I can’t find it online, but it presumably will show up eventually here):

* Emerging market economies accounted for the majority of global oil consumption for the first time in 2007

* Oil consumption was actually down in the developed world in both 2006 and 2007; it just rose enough everywhere else to keep global demand rising

* High prices (and reduced subsidies) are now finally bringing a marked slowdown in emerging markets as well, and JP Morgan predicts that global oil demand will contract by 0.6% in 2008 and 0.2% in 2009

This would seem to be a recipe for lower oil prices. Except that of course if oil prices go a lot lower, demand will just start rising again, and …