Abstract:
This paper examines the macroeconomic effects of an oil price shock in a small open industrial economy without oil resources, namely, Switzerland. First, we test whether oil price shocks Granger-cause Swiss macroeconomic variables, and use a medium-scale macroeconometric model to track the effects of an oil price shock. Our estimates show that large increases in oil prices lead to a rather small decline in Swiss real GDP. Furthermore, there is no permanent pass-through effect via core inflation. Oil price shocks also adversely affect Swiss exports, but imports also shrink and lessen the overall impact on real GDP growth.