But the crisis has shown that this is not always a blessing, as the probability of contagion effects increase significantly across closely interconnected financial markets. This means that when a crisis occurs, not providing assistance can prove very expensive.
So there has been what economists refer to as a “positive supply shock”: more of the product is available with lower prices. The effect of this on individual countries will vary, depending on whether they are a producer or a consumer of such raw materials. On the whole for the global economy, however, this is a positive development.