External Adjustment in Commodity Exporting Economies During Energy Price Downturns

Recent examples of energy price downturns did not alter trade surpluses in commodity exporting countries. Economic theory contends that such developments may indicate that the changes observed in energy prices are perceived as permanent by the market. We perform a trend-cycle decomposition of oil prices and find that permanent shocks account for about 90% of oil price variation. The observed variability of oil prices attributable to permanent shocks may be explained by the increased financialization of oil markets. This finding is in line with the empirical evidence that the current account surplus is generally unaffected by permanent terms-of-trade shocks.