Oil Hits Prices Not Seen in Five Years

Mirroring the previous week's decline, oil prices continued their precipitous drop on Monday morning.

In early Monday trading, the Brent crude pricing benchmark hit $67.44, a record low not seen since 2009, Business Insider reported.

The price of a barrel of oil has been slashed in half since June, when prices soared to nearly $115 per barrel.

(Image via Investing.com/Business Insider)

The U.S. pricing benchmark WTI also fell Monday morning, dipping nearly 2 percent to below $65 per barrel.

Consumers can look forward to lower energy costs as global oversupply keeps oil prices down, but there's a downside for a big U.S. industry: Several major U.S. shale basins are being rendered unprofitable as the price of a barrel goes below the cost of getting that barrel out of the ground.

What will happen to the world's economies if oil prices stay low?

UBS analysts estimated the impact of a permanent $10-per-barrel drop in oil prices on national GDPs around the world, showing that oil exporters — especially Russia — will get hammered, while most nations will see a modest increase in GDP levels.

The big winner: The Philippines, which would see GDP rise more than half a percent, UBS estimated.

(Image via UBS/Business Insider)

This story has been updated.

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