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Energy Prices and the U.S. Business Cycle

William Poole*
President, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Global Interdependence Center (GIC) Abroad in Chile Conference
American Chamber of Commerce in Chile Breakfast
Santiago, Chile
March 2, 2007

*I appreciate comments provided by my colleagues at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Edward Nelson, assistant vice president, provided special assistance. I take full responsibility for errors. The views expressed are mine and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the Federal Reserve System.

Energy Prices and the U.S. Business Cycle

A staple of the macroeconomics literature is that energy price shocks have been an important contributor to U.S. recessions. The situation is clearly more complicated than the common macro textbook exercise of using standard diagrams to work out the effects of an energy shock. Recent experience with a near tripling of oil prices from mid 2003 to mid 2006 without a recession suggests the need to review the conventional wisdom. One of my messages will be that the conventional wisdom fails to consider the fact that previous oil price shocks occurred when the U.S. economy was already suffering from substantial inflation pressures, whereas the recent run-up of oil prices has occurred in an economy with substantial overall price stability and entrenched, low inflation expectations.

Before I dig into the issue of the extent of causality between oil price shocks and recessions, I want to emphasize that the views I express here are mine and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the Federal Reserve System. I thank my colleagues at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis for their comments; Ed Nelson, asistant vice president, provided special assistance. However, I retain full responsibility for errors.
The Debate

The historical record since 1970 provides some perspective on the relationship between oil prices and the business cycle. The figure (at end of text) plots the U.S. benchmark oil price (the West Texas intermediate spot price), both in nominal terms (i.e., current U.S. dollars) and real terms (i.e., deflated by the CPI so as to be in constant 1982-84 dollars) since 1970. Shaded regions denote U.S. recessions, as designated by the National Bureau of Economic Research. These include the recession of 1973-75, associated with the oil price shock of 1973-74, the recessions of 1980 and 1981-82, preceded by the second oil shock in 1979, and the recession of 1990-91, also associated with a large, but more transitory, oil price increase of about 75 percent in 1990-91. There are also more drawn-out but steep oil increases in 1999-2000 and 2003-2006. The presence of the recession bars in the graph brings out what Hamilton and Herrera (2004, p. 265) observe is “a correlation between increases in oil prices and subsequent economic downturns.” In particular, recessions began in the United States within a year of the 1973, 1979 and 1990 oil price increases.

There has been much debate on how much of this link between recessions and prior oil price increases should be attributed to the powerful effect of oil shocks on the economy, and how much reflects a third factor—more restrictive monetary policy imposed at roughly the same time as the oil shocks. But I would draw attention to another aspect of the relationship between the business cycle and oil prices highlighted by the figure. The United States has never had an energy price spike occur in the middle of a recession, or immediately following a recession when unemployment is still relatively high. This fact suggests two properties of large oil price increases that are useful to keep in mind. First, very sharp increases in oil prices that we have observed historically, while undoubtedly reflecting exogenous supply disruptions to some degree, also reflect the strength of the economy at the time. Secondly, the casual association often made, based on the 1970s experience, between oil price increases and high inflation, is largely misguided because the large oil price increases of the 1970s occurred against the background of cyclical expansions that had gone too far.

The 1973 and 1979 episodes did not feature inflationary spirals triggered by the oil shocks. Instead, they are characterized by preexisting, general inflationary pressures that an alternative monetary policy could have avoided. The first oil shock in 1973 occurred against a background of clear economic overheating in the United States. U.S. monetary policy was very expansionary in 1971 and 1972, leading to excessive growth of aggregate demand that, even in the presence of price controls, spilled over into rising inflation in 1973. By October 1973—that is, the month of the first oil shock, but largely before its impact could be felt in the CPI—inflation had reached 8.1 percent on a 12-month basis, a sharp rise from the 3.2 percent rate over the 12 months ending in October 1972. Annual CPI inflation subsequently rose to 11.8 percent in October 1974 and peaked at 12.2 percent in November 1974.

Similarly, in the wake of several years of expanding demand, inflation rose throughout most of 1977 and 1978, well before the second oil shock, and the 12-month rate stood at 9.3 percent in January 1979, 2.5 percentage points above its value of January 1978. Inflation subsequently peaked at 14.6 percent in March 1980. Even the 1990 oil price spike occurred late in a long economic expansion, with annual inflation having stood above 4 percent since mid-1988. In July 1990, the 12-month CPI inflation rate was 4.8 percent, too high to correspond to price stability and not far below the July 1989 value of 5.1 percent. Following the oil shock that began in August 1990, inflation peaked at 6.4 percent in October 1990.

The strength of the economy at the time of the three oil shocks is also reflected in the unemployment rate. In October 1973, the seasonally adjusted U.S. unemployment rate stood at 4.6 percent, its lowest rate since early 1970; in January 1979 it was 5.9 percent, close to its trough for the late 1970s expansion; and in July 1990, unemployment was 5.5 percent, above its March 1989 low of 5.0 percent, but still lower than its value in any month in the years 1975-1987.

This emphasis on the link between the state of the business cycle and the strength of oil prices may seem surprising. Many of the well-known spikes in the oil price are associated with exogenous events on the supply side: for example, OPEC’s quadrupling of the oil price in late 1973 in the wake of the Middle East war; OPEC’s doubling of the oil price in 1979 following the revolution in Iran; and Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990. These events were certainly major supply-side disruptions. But even a cartel like OPEC that administers the price of its product cannot ignore market conditions. In particular, a reason why OPEC was able to sustain the very large 1973 oil price increase for so long was because world demand for oil was underpinned by rapid expansion of aggregate demand in key markets in Europe, Japan and the United States. Indeed, some analysts of the 1973 oil shock have cast doubt on whether the oil price increase of 1973 can be considered an exogenous event at all; Barsky and Kilian (2001) argue that it was a delayed response to long-term demand developments in the oil market, combined with a response to contemporaneous buoyant world demand conditions.(1) We do not have to go this far, however, to recognize that there was a significant endogenous component to the oil price increases in 1973 and 1979 due to demand factors, reflecting an overheating of the U.S. economy which coincided with boom conditions in other advanced economies.
Oil Prices and Inflation

Members of the FOMC, as well as monetary policy makers in Europe and the United Kingdom, have spoken about oil prices and inflation on many occasions in recent years. Despite differences in emphasis, a clear proposition runs through these discussions: Irrespective of the behavior of oil prices, we can be confident that monetary policy oriented to price stability will deliver control over inflation over the medium term. It is worth spelling out this proposition in some detail.

The reason why price stability is not contingent on oil price behavior is that inflation is a sustained rise in the general level of prices. The price of oil enters heavily into a particular category of consumer prices—gasoline prices—and indirectly into the prices of many other products. It is possible for the price of energy-intensive goods to change relative to a general index of prices; in fact, such relative-price movements are part of the everyday workings of a market economy. And, over periods of, say, a year or more it is possible for monetary policy to secure low inflation—which means low growth rates in indexes of overall prices—even when energy price inflation is high. Over time, the general level of prices responds to the supply-demand imbalance in the economy: that is, to longer-term movement in total spending in the economy relative to long-run supply potential. Monetary policy actions affect the total volume of spending, and so can influence the balance between aggregate demand and supply. By keeping aggregate demand in balance with aggregate supply, monetary policy can create conditions for general price stability, even if certain components in the price index are persistently increasing.

Two aspects of this picture are worth emphasizing. First, the overall price level is susceptible to influence by monetary policy even if the price of oil, or other commodities, is being driven by exogenous supply events. That is why Milton Friedman could advance his proposition that “inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon” even though he acknowledged that the 1973 OPEC shock had produced a “drastic alteration in the conditions of supply of crude oil.”(2) The general trend of prices is distinct from the behavior of a single price in the index or subset of the index. Inflation is always an endogenous variable in the medium term, whatever exogenous shocks are affecting its components in the short term.

Secondly, monetary policymakers often pay attention to “core” measures of prices that exclude energy and food prices. This focus does not, however, mean that policymakers’ concept of price stability refers only to a basket of goods that excludes energy-intensive items. The overall cost of living is what matters for welfare, so stability over time in indexes that include energy is desirable. But because the price of gasoline is volatile, it is often desirable to “see through” very short-term movements in consumer prices, and work out what is happening to the underlying trend of prices. Looking at core measures of inflation can be useful for this purpose. Indeed core and aggregate inflation clearly move together over longer periods. That said, during periods of sustained increases in relative energy prices, general price stability requires that price indexes that exclude energy will need to grow more slowly than the aggregate price index; over this period, achievement of inflation at a desirable level means that core inflation, on average, proceeds below the overall level of inflation.

Thirdly, an oil price increase may reduce aggregate supply and policymakers also need to take this fact into account in keeping demand and supply in balance. This issue is most prominent when the oil price change is permanent and when the economy’s technology is very energy-intensive on average. The 1973 oil shock, for example, was long-lasting and took place at a time when U.S. production was very energy-inefficient. Potential output thus fell substantially. The economy was already overheated by 1973; so, some reining in of spending by monetary policy was justified even before the oil shock; but once the oil shock took place, monetary policy needed to tighten, just to keep supply and demand from going further into imbalance. That is, it was necessary to let actual output fall with the decline in potential output. From this perspective, Hamilton and Herrera (2004) are not necessarily posing the right question when they ask how much of a monetary policy loosening would have been required to avoid a recession after the 1973 oil shock. The supply shock alone justified a monetary policy tightening on stabilization grounds.

In recent years, on the other hand, the circumstances of the 1973 oil shock have not been repeated. The economy has not been overheated; the economy is more energy-efficient so the impact on supply of oil shocks has been moderated; and the more severe spikes in the oil price such as in summer 2006 have been recognized as transitory in nature. In these circumstances, monetary policy is in a much better position to support aggregate demand in the face of oil shocks without endangering medium-term price stability. This state of affairs has been emphasized by the Federal Reserve Chairman in his discussion of the effect of oil shocks (Bernanke, 2006).

In summary, maintenance of low inflation over a period of several years or more is achievable whatever happens to oil prices. The same was true in the 1970s, and the fact that inflation was high on average reflected over-expansionary monetary policy, not the oil shocks.
Recent Oil Price Increases

The oil price increase in 2003-2006 is in line with the earlier pattern that surges in oil prices occur during economic expansions. Indeed, recent increases are more clearly a demand phenomenon than the previous increases. Energy prices in recent years have been driven by demand rather than supply. The source of this demand is unusual compared to the past, with a smaller contribution of U.S. demand and a much larger contribution of China. China’s net imports of oil were projected to be 2.3 percent of its GDP in 2006 compared to 0.9 percent in 2002 (IMF, 2006, p. 31). A longer-term perspective is given by the fact that China’s share of world demand for oil is estimated to have risen from 3.5 percent in 1990 to around 8.2 percent in 2006 (Weber, 2006). This increase reflects the rapid growth and industrialization of China in the past fifteen years, as well as the use of production technology that is, on average, energy-inefficient compared to the United States.
Conclusions

Without question, energy supply shocks are disruptive, but they need not create recessions. Indeed, there is a more general lesson from experience with oil price shocks. Monetary policy should not allow an economy to operate at the edge of a cliff. When balanced precariously at the edge of a cliff, even a minor disturbance, oil or otherwise, may be sufficient to push the economy over the edge. Although an outside shock may be the catalyst, or trigger, that creates undue inflation pressures, the fundamental problem is not the catalyst but the powerful and risky brew of an overheated economy. To use another analogy, if someone opens gas jets and fills a house with gas, do we blame the explosion on the person who lights the match or the person who opened the jets? I know where I want to place the blame.


Footnotes

1. See Hamilton (2003, pp. 388-89) for a rebuttal of Barsky and Kilian’s (2001) position that the 1973-74 oil price increase did not incorporate a major exogenous supply shift.

2. Friedman and Schwartz (1982, p. 414).


References

Barsky, Robert B., and Lutz Kilian (2001). “Do We Really Know That Oil Caused the Great Stagflation? A Monetary Alternative,” NBER Macroeconomics Annual, Vol. 16(1), 137-183.

Bernanke, Ben S. (2006). “Energy and the Economy.” Remarks before the Economic Club of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, June 15.

Friedman, Milton, and Anna J. Schwartz (1982). Monetary Trends in the United States and the United Kingdom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Hamilton, James D. (2003). “What Is an Oil Shock?,” Journal of Econometrics, Vol. 113(2), 363-398.

Hamilton, James D., and Ana Maria Herrera (2004). “Oil Shocks and Aggregate Macroeconomic Behavior: The Role of Monetary Policy,” Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Vol. 36(2), 265-286.

International Monetary Fund (2006). People’s Republic of China—Article IV Consultation: Staff Report. Washington, D.C.

Weber, Axel A. (2006). “Oil Price Shocks and Monetary Policy in the Euro Area.” Whitaker Lecture by President of the Deutsche Bundesbank.


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용산·태릉·과천 등 6만호 조성 [서울=뉴스핌] 이동훈 선임기자 = 서울 용산국제업무지구와 태릉CC(골프장), 경기 과천 경마장(렛츠런파크서울)을 비롯한 서울 도심부와 경기 서울 근교지역에 총 6만가구가 공급된다. 이를 위해 11개 도심 내 공공부지에 4만3500가구가 공급되며 신규 공공주택지구를 새로 지정해 6300가구를 짓는다. 또 도심 내 노후청사를 활용해 모두 9900가구가 지어질 예정이다. 오는 2027년부터 2030년까지 순차적으로 착공한다. ◆ '9·7 주택공급 확대방안' 후속초지...도심 6만 가구 조성 29일 국토교통부에 따르면 정부는 이같은 내용을 담은 '도심 주택공급 확대 및 신속화 방안'을 발표했다.  '9·7 주택공급 확대방안'의 후속조치인 이번 1·29 대책에서는 도심권에서 6만가구가 공급된다. 지역별로 서울은 3만2000가구(53.3%), 경기 2만8000가구(46.5%), 인천 100가구(0.2%)가 각각 배정됐다.  공급 계획 [자료=국토부] 먼저 도심내 공공부지에는 4만3500가구를 짓는다. 이 가운데 서울시와 정부가 마련한 기존 공급물량 7400가구를 제외하면 3만6100가구가 새로 지정된 물량이다.  서울 용산구 용산국제업무지구와 캠프킴에서 기존계획 물량 7400가구를 포함한 총 1만2600가구가 공급된다. 서울시가 주관하는 용산국제업무지구에서는 6000가구의 주택을 공급할 예정이었으나 이번 정부 방침에 따라 주택공급수가 1만가구로 4000가구 늘어나게 됐다. 서울시가 주택공급 확대에 대한 문제로 지적했던 학교 신설은 중단한다. 착공은 2028년으로 예정됐다. 수도권전철 남영역 인근 캠프킴 부지의 주택규모는 2500가구로 기존 1400가구에서 1100가구 더 확대됐다. 2029년 착공을 추진한다. 아울러 인기 주거지역인 서빙고동 '501 정보대'부지에도 신혼부부 등을 위한 소형주택 150가구를 짓는다. 2029년 착공 예정이다.  경기 과천시 일원 과천경마장과 방첩사 부지에서 9800가구를 건립한다. 정부는 과천 경마장(115만㎡)과 국군방첩사령부(28만㎡) 이전 후 해당 부지 총 143만㎡를 통합 개발한다는 방침이다. 경마장과 방첩사 이전계획을 국방부와 농식품부와 협의해 올 상반기내 완료하고 오는 2030년 착공할 예정이다.  문재인 정부시절 주택공급 후보지로 떠올랐던 서울 노원구 태릉CC 총 87만5000㎡에는 6800가구가 공급된다. 정부는 장기간 진척되지 못하던 태릉CC 개발사업을 국가유산청과의 협의를 거쳐 본격 추진하고 주민을 위한 교통대책과 충분한 녹지공간 마련에 나선다는 방침이다. 세계유산영향평가를 거친 후 공공주택 지구지정과 지구계획 수립 등을 병행해 2030년 착공을 추진한다.  경기 성남시 판교테크노밸리 및 성남시청과 인접한 곳에 신규 공공주택지구 성남금토2지구와 성남여수2지구 약 67.4만㎡(20만평)를 지정한다. 이들 신규 택지에는 6300가구가 공급될 예정이다. 두 공공택지는 인허가 및 보상을 완료한 후 착공은 2030년 목표다.  서울 동대문구 일원에서는 국방연구원과 인접한 한국경제발전전시관을 함께 이전하고 이전 부지 총 5만5000㎡ 규모에 주택 1500가구를 짓는다. 국토부는 국조실·기후부·성평등부와 협의해 해당 기관을 2027년 상반기까지 이전하고 이전 시점에 맞춰 사업 승인, 토지 매입 등을 추진해 2029년 착공한다는 방침이다.   서울 인접 역세권 부지와 그간 장기 지연된 사업의 계획을 변경해 총 1만1500여가구를 신규 공급한다. 정부는 이들 지구에 대해 예비 타당성 조사를 면제함으로써 사업 속도를 높일 계획이다.  먼저 경기 광명시 광명경찰서 부지 약 9000㎡에 550가구를 짓는다. 2027년까지 경찰서 이전을 완료하고 이전 일정에 맞춰 2029년 착공한다. 경기 하남시 신장 테니스장 부지 약 5000㎡에는 300가구가 공급된다. 2029년 착공을 목표로 한다.  서울 강서구 강서 군부지 약 7만㎡에는 918가구가 건립된다. 당초 부지 매각 방식으로 추진됐던 이 사업은 위탁개발 방식으로 변경해 재개된다. 2027년 착공될 예정이다. 서울 금천구 독산동 공군부대 13만㎡부지는 군부대 압축·고밀개발 방식으로 2900가구를 공급한다. 착공은 2030년이다.  경기 남양주시 퇴계원 일대 군부대 부지 35만㎡에 4180가구를 짓는다. 예비 타당성 조사를 면제해 2029년 착공을 추진한다. 또 경기 고양시 구국방대학교 부지 33만㎡에는 2570가구를 공급한다. 2029년 착공을 목표로 서울 상암DMC와 잇는 직주근접 미디어밸리를 조성할 방침이다. ◆ 공급확대에 범부처 역량 결집...투기 방지도 병행 정부는 이번 1·29 '도심 주택공급 확대 및 신속화 방안'의 원활한 추진을 위해 '주택공급촉진 관계장관회의'를 신설한다. 회의에서는 발표 부지에 대한 이행 일정 점검 및 조기화를 추진하고 신규 물량 발굴에도 지속 노력한다는 방침이다. 특히 기존 시설 이전이 필요한 부지는 2027년까지 이전을 결정하고 택지 조성에 착수할 수 있도록 범부처가 역량을 결집해 추진상황을 집중 관리할 예정이다.  사업 속도 제고를 위해 2026년 중 국방연구원과 서울의료원, 강남구청 등 13곳에 대한 공기업 예비 타당성 조사 면제를 추진하고 국유재산심의위·세계유산영향평가 등 사전절차도 신속 이행할 계획이다. 아울러 국가가 서민주택 공급 등을 위해 추진하는 공공주택지구조성 사업은 국무회의 등을 거쳐 그린벨트(GB) 해제 총량에서 예외로 인정하는 방안을 5년 한시로 추진한다.  이와 함께 투기 방지를 위해  해당 지구 및 주변지역은 토지거래 허가구역으로 즉시 지정한다. 이를 토대로 투기성 토지 거래 등을 사전에 차단할 방침이다. 정부는 지구·주변지역에 대한 조사 결과 미성년·외지인·법인 매수, 잦은 손바뀜과 같은 이상거래 280건을 선별했으며 이에 대한 분석 및 수사의뢰 조치에 나섰다.   향후 정부는 올 2월 도심 공급 확대를 위한 신규 부지와 제도개선 과제를 발표할 예정이다. 아울러 올 상반기 중 '주거복지 추진방안'을 발표해 청년과 신혼부부 등을 위한 주택공급 확대방안을 내놓을 방침이다.   donglee@newspim.com 2026-01-29 11:00
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국힘 최고위, 한동훈 '제명' 의결   [서울=뉴스핌] 신정인 기자 = 국민의힘이 29일 최고위원회의를 열고 한동훈 전 국민의힘 대표에 대한 '제명' 징계안을 의결했다. 최보윤 국민의힘 수석대변인은 이날 오전 서울 여의도 국회 본관에서 브리핑을 통해 "한동훈 전 대표에 대한 당원 징계안이 윤리위 의결대로 최고위에서 의결됐다"고 밝혔다. 이번 표결에는 최고위원 6명과 당 대표, 원내대표, 정책위의장 등 총 9명이 참여했다. 최 수석대변인은 "표결 내용이나 찬반 부분은 비공개"라며 구체적인 표결 결과는 공개하지 않았다. 징계 의결의 취지에 대해 최 수석대변인은 "의결 취지는 이미 윤리위 내용이 공개돼 있어 그 부분을 참고하면 된다"며 "기존 말씀드렸듯이 윤리위 의결대로 최고위에서 의결됐다"고 설명했다. 이날 의결 과정에서 징계 수위를 낮춰야 한다는 논의가 있었는지에 대한 질문에는 "최고위원들 사이 사전회의는 배석하지 않아서 내용을 알지 못한다"고 답했다. 또한 "의결 때 비공개였고 저도 배석하지 않은 관계로 내용에 대해 말씀드리기 어렵다"고 덧붙였다. 장동혁 국민의힘 대표(좌)와 한동훈 전 대표 [사진=뉴스핌 DB] 최 수석대변인은 "절차적으로 의결에 대한 통보 절차가 있을 것으로 보인다"며 "이미 의결이 된 부분으로서 결정된 부분"이라고 강조했다. 징계는 의결과 동시에 효력이 발생한다. 한편 한 전 대표가 가처분을 신청할 가능성에 대해서는 "당 입장은 따로 없다"며 "신청되면 신청 절차에 임해서 필요한 부분 소명이나 그런 부분이 있을 것으로 보인다"고 말했다.  한편 한 전 대표는 이날 오후 국회에서 긴급 기자회견을 열고 제명 확정에 대해 언급할 것으로 전해졌다. allpass@newspim.com 2026-01-29 10:14
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