The recent precipitous plunge in oil prices from approximately $ to $ has stoked concerns over growth of particularly the oil-producing countries, fuelling fears about deflation and intensifying scrutiny of capital spending across the energy sector, with companies set to slash their exploration and development budgets. Some estimates put the figure of possible losses related to halting exploration projects at $ trillion.
On the other hand, many other measures of financial conditions appear to be indicating, to the contrary, that financial conditions are very favorable, highly supportive of contained momentum in aggregate demand and perhaps becoming even more so.