Average Inventory  Crude Oil Price (rhs)  Figure 5 Crude grade qualities  Source: JPMorgan Commodities Research, Energy Intelligence Group  BIS Review 69/2004  7  Figure 6 Crude oil futures contract volumes (NYMEX)  60  300'000  50  250'000  40  200'000  30  150'000  20  100'000  10  50'000  0  0  1995  1996  1997  1998  1999  2000  2001  Non-Commercial Long Contracts WTI Crude Oil (USD/ bbl) (lhs)  2002  2003  2004  Non-Commercial Short Contracts  Figure 7 Historical WTI futures price curves 50 45  U S D /b b  40 35 30 25 20 15 0  1  2  3  4  5  6  Y e a rs to e x p iry 2 0 0 4 -1 1 -1 2  8  1 ye a r a g o  3 ye a rs a g o  BIS Review 69/2004  Figure 8 Backwardation O il Spread (Spot - Futures 3M ) in U S D 3.00  2.00  1.00  0.00  -1.00 Spread Poly.
The basic growth mechanism for our standard of living, i.e. labour productivity, now becomes the weighted sum of capital growth per capita and technological progress. Given a constant age structure of the population, and an evenly balanced age pyramid, the basic formula for growth in the standard of living can also be expressed as the weighted sum of capital growth per employee and technological progress (a complication that I will return to later is that the age structure is not constant). Capital formation contributed to lower productivity growth in Sweden Why did it go badly for Sweden during the 1970s and 1980s? First, it should be noted that the majority of industrialised nations suffered a drop in productivity growth from the beginning of the 1970s. This was due to the supply shock associated with the first oil crisis, when the price of oil tripled, followed by a second oil crisis at the end of the 1970s when the price once again increased threefold but this time from a higher level. As we know, the price of oil affects many parts of the economy. Oil is used as energy for transport and heating purposes and its price therefore has a direct impact on the costs of these. Moreover, firms’ costs are affected since oil products are often used as intermediate inputs in, for example, different plastic products. So all countries encountered problems due to the oil supply shock, but productivity growth declined more in Sweden than in other countries. Many explanations have been put forward for this.