chapter two - OAPEC

PART ONE
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS
IN OIL AND ENERGY
CHAPTER ONE
DEVELOPMENTS IN GLOBAL MARKETS AND
THEIR IMPACT ON OAPEC MEMBER COUNTRIES
FOREWORD
The year 2009 witnessed the persistence and deepening of the global
financial crisis, which had begun in August 2007 when the high-risk
subprime mortgage market collapsed in the US, and escalated with the
successive series of landslides in the capital markets and the collapse of
banking institutions in August 2008. The situation in global financial
markets had a negative impact on the real economy of different countries.
The oil market was not immune from developments in the global
economies. They had a clear impact on world demand for oil, levels of oil
inventories, prices and value of OAPEC’s member countries oil exports,
which is the main engine of socioeconomic development.
The year 2009 commenced with further deterioration and financial
chaos. The world economy underwent its worst economic recession since
the thirties with a sharp decline in GDP in the industrialized countries, and
a slowdown in the growth rate of developing countries.
This situation made it necessary to adopt a new measures to rescue
and stimulate the financial systems, whether at the level of individual
countries, in particular in industrialized countries, or at the level of global
financial institutions within a framework of international coordination.
These steps were taken in order to assure market stability and minimize the
impact of the global financial crisis and avoid its repetition.
As the 2009 year proceeded, world economies began to show signs of
recovery, especially in the second half of the year. This in turn led to a
gradual recovery in growth rates of global oil demand at the start of the
second half, with the third quarter of 2009 showing a clear gain over the
second quarter of the same year.