The Recycling of Petrodollars

The trading market for the petrodollar revenues emerged before the first oil price crisis, but did not blossom before the quadrupling of the oil price between 1973 to 1974. The little taxed and unregulated market for dollar deposits, bonds and loans at London, the most prominent finance place in Europe, proved to be the perfect institution for the recycling of the OPEC countries payment surplus. The Eurodollar market in London channelled their short-term surpluses back to the oil importing nations and boosted the long-term loan market for the developing nations. In the 1970s, long-term loans to developing countries became a popular outlet for the banks' liquidity surplus. But OPEC's dropping payment surplus, high interest policies in the US and threatening liquidity gaps in the commercial banking sector prompted the recall of loans which brought the debtors to the edge of illiquidity. JEL Classification : F30, O16Kopper Christopher. The Recycling of Petrodollars . In: Revue d'économie financière (English ed.). Hors-série, 2009. Sovereign wealth funds : Special Issue 2009. pp. 37-46