Oil is cheap because China is having problems.
And they were perhaps selling robots to China.
Yes, cheap commodities should benefit Japan but when they're cheap because demand is weak, Japan suffers from that too.
Yes, cheap commodities should benefit Japan but when they're cheap because demand is weak, Japan suffers from that too.
Saudi Arabia has saved up a large stash over the past few decades & it would not like its regional power states to be taken away in wake of the removal of Iranian sanctions. At least not for a while.
The Saudi oil ministry intentionally lobbied for increased production as soon as they became aware Iranian oil sanctions could be removed.
If game theory is used to analyse the situation, it serves them best to encourage the oil price to stay low & everyone else is incentivised not to cut production either.