The recent drop in oil prices should persist, helping to boost global economic activity by up to 0.7 percentage points next year, two senior IMF economists wrote in a blog on Monday. Brent prices have fallen more than 46 percent since the year’s peak in June of above $115 per barrel, sped up by the November decision of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) not to reduce production. Saudi Arabia has also convinced its fellow OPEC members it is not in the group’s interest to cut oil output, however far prices may fall, the kingdom’s oil minister said. “Overall, we see this as a shot in the arm for the global economy,” Olivier Blanchard, the IMF’s chief economist, and Rabah Arezki, head of the commodities research team, said in the blog. The boost to the global economy would be between 0.3 and 0.7 […]