After the Arab oil embargo of 1973, oil prices rose rapidly and the energy importing economies experienced an exogenously determined real supply shock, which, in most cases, led to a fall in their rates of economic growth and a corresponding rise in the rates of inflation. The energy situation emerged as a serious issue and the relationship between energy consumption and economic growth came into sharp focus. The last decade has been a period of disequilibrium, structural adjustment and adoption of strategies to cope with the previously unknown phenomenon of stagflation.