Cheap natural gas has delivered a significant boost to US manufacturing exports, the International Monetary Fund has found. Advances in shale rock drilling have led to a sharp rebound in US gas production, driving prices in the US to a steep discount to markets in Europe and Asia. US gas sells for $4 per million British thermal units, compared with $10 in Europe and close to $18 in Asia. The price gap has led to a 6 per cent average increase in US manufactured product exports, the IMF wrote in its twice-yearly World Economic Outlook . While energy costs generally represent a relatively small share of total input costs, “the lower natural gas price in the United States, which is likely to persist, has had a noticeable effect on US energy-intensive manufacturing exports,” the IMF report said. Lower prices for natural gas favour energy- and gas-intensive industries, such as […]