The Global Financial Crisis and the Arab Petroleum Sector Changes and Prospects Two Years Later

摘要

In the closing days of 2008 and the whole of 2009 the world faced the worst slowdown in economic activity since the Great Depression. It resulted from an unprecedented imbalance in the world financial system, accompanied by the worst economic and commercial slump in decades. The crisis, which started in the US real estate market, created confusion and instability in financial markets and grew into a suffocating credit crisis. Stock markets experienced severe shocks and sharper drops than ever before and the Shockwaves spread rapidly and unexpectedly to the real economy in all parts of the world. It rapidly affected advanced economies, emerging markets, and low income countries alike. The economic downturn prompted a sharp drop in industrial production and international trade.