What has happened every time energy prices have risen sharply?
The COVID crisis and then the war in Ukraine are now leading to a very sharp rise in energy prices. How will this change the growth outlook for OECD countries? To try to answer this question, we look at what has happened in the past whenever energy prices have risen significantly (1974, 1978-79, 2005 - 2008, 2011-2014). We see that these sharp rises in energy prices have always ended in recession, with a decline in real wages, and therefore in consumption, real earnings, and therefore in investment and exports, since this is a global shock.