Indications that crude-oil prices will stay lower for longer than previously anticipated are already starting to affect global economic trends in both energy producing and consuming countries, speakers said at a Nov. 2 Center for Strategic and International Studies event. They said the question now is whether developing and industrializing countries’ governments will enact policies that find ways to get more energy to emerging middle class consumers which respond to their actual needs. “Improvements we’ve made in energy efficiency are ironically mitigating the economic benefits of a lower oil price,” said Daniel Ahn, a senior advisor to the US Department of State’s Chief Economist. “At least for the moment, there seems to be some temporary relief. The question is whether we can transmit this into broader structural reform.” Joyce Chang, who heads global research at JP Morgan Chase & Co., said, “There are a lot of differences this time around. Emerging markets have about $10 trillion of foreign exchange reserves. Nobody is questioning that China will support its state-owned enterprises and Brazil will support Petrobras. But many emerging countries were counting on China’s demand being there, and that’s not happening. I think of it more as a slow bleed.” Catherine Wolfram, faculty director at the Haas School of Business Energy Institute at the University of California at Berkeley, said, “Migration to urban centers from rural locations, where energy demand isn’t as intense, also matters. Right now, in India where they are more than 1 billion people, only 6 million have air conditioners.”