Asia’s Rising Resilience to Oil Prices


Go, Malaysia. And Petrofac.

Dateline 2014-06-26, The Wall Street Journal:

With fighting in Iraq threatening to drive oil prices higher, Asia’s external balances could come under pressure.

Brent crude hit $115 per barrel last week and the risk of a further rise can’t be discounted due to the deteriorating security situation in Iraq, which has large oil reserves and controls roughly 3% of global supplies, largely through its southern fields around Basra.

India, China and South Korea are among the Asian economies that rely heavily on oil from Iraq, but spillovers will affect the entire region, as Asia’s industrialized, exporting countries are large net importers of oil. Malaysia is the region’s only net exporter of energy commodities, making it a beneficiary of higher oil prices (note that we do not adjust our analysis for the possibility that demand could fall as oil prices rise).

 

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