[20161026]IF10493_油价下跌的影响.pdf

https:/crsreports.congress.gov October 26, 2016Effects of Lower Oil PricesOil production, refining, and trade are important parts of the U.S. and the world economies. Crude oil is an important indirect component of gross domestic product in the United States. Oil is a key input in petroleum refining, petrochemical, and plastics industries, in addition to many others. The oil industry provides relatively high paying jobs, is a leading source, and implementer, of new technologies, as well as being an important component of world trade. The price of oil, important in its own right, is also a key component in the costs of a wide variety of consumer and industrial products, perhaps the most visible, and important, being gasoline and other transportation fuels. However, the price of oil has proven to be unstable and volatile, both in the short- and long-term. Oil prices respond to both real, fundamental changes in demand and supply, as well as changing expectations based on world events. Spot, futures, and other derivative markets, are readily available to oil traders who wish to trade oil based on these expectations, which, when trading occurs, are then incorporated in the real price o