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(Barrons) The slump in oil prices since mid-2014 has transferred $600 billion of real income from OPEC producers alone to the end users of that oil — mainly households in developed market economies. This is roughly equivalent to the entire annual gross domestic product of Saudi Arabia.

The boost to real incomes in the West is central to our broader expectation that global deflationary pressure will continue to coexist with positive global growth. The drop in the oil price has been especially abrupt because a huge positive supply…