Because the oil shocks of the past or relatively short-lived we have never really tested the idea of who would be the first to go without or how that pain might be distributed among world's net importers (I assume net exporters should be able to trade oil for refined product even if they do not have much refining capacity themselves). To that end I am trying to accumulate some statistics and would love to hear your input.
Recognizing that it is imperfect, I am including the current account balance as a measure of ability to pay for the imports that are available. Suggestions and arguments for a better measure are greatly appreciated.
- Code: Select all
Oil Consumption Net Imports Imports as % of total used Current Account Balance*
USA 20.69 12.22 59.06% -731
Japan 5.2 5.1 98.08% 210
China 7.2 3.44 47.78% 371
Germany 2.7 2.48 91.85% 254
South Korea 2.2 2.15 97.73% 3.7
France 2 1.89 94.50% -35
India 2.6 1.69 65.00% -18
Italy 1.7 1.56 91.76% -57
Spain 1.6 1.55 96.88% -126
Taiwan 0.95 0.94 99.16% 23.8
Netherlands 0.98 0.94 95.92% 59
Singapore 0.83 0.79 95.18% 41
Thailand 0.93 0.61 65.59% 8.6
Turkey 0.68 0.58 85.29% -36
Belgium 0.63 0.55 87.30% 11
*current account balance in billions of dollars
