The oil price is back where it was four months ago. This does not mean that it is safe to forget about the crude price’s trip from $114 to $147 per barrel and back again. Many may find that adventure impossible to forget. But it does help sort out the impact of the falling oil price on other markets.

Since oil was last at $114 in April, developed world stocks, as measured by MSCI, have fallen almost 8 per cent. Emerging market stocks are down almost twice as much. So the removal of the worst pressure from oil prices has not been enough to bring stocks back to anything like their previous levels.