DURING the first oil shocks of the 1970s and 1980s, when the price of fuel leapt by orders of magnitude, the world's consumers quickly learned to make a virtue of necessity by eschewing gas-guzzling automobiles and energy-intensive lifestyles in favour of smaller vehicle engines, more efficient public transport, lowered thermostats and energy-efficient appliances. Once fuel prices eased as a proportion of overall household expenditure, as economies grew to restore previous standards of living, they didn't automatically revert to the wasteful abandon of yesteryear. A similar phenomenon is being seen here today. The inflationary shocks of 2008 sparked by spiking oil prices in mid-year have settled into what seems a more sober realism on the part of Malaysian producers and consumers alike.

The RM2.5 billion in rebates paid out to vehicle owners in the wake of June's 40.6 per cent hike in petrol prices at the pump, it must be said, didn't do as much to assuage consumers' feelings as the subsequent lowering of pump prices in accordance with the falling cost of oil. As a consequence, the petrol price here has dropped to just a shade above what it was before June, and may even drop below that level, in a signal lesson on the vagaries of the oil market in these times of global economic volatility. However, this shouldn't have much effect on the new realisations and consequent lifestyle changes spurred by the vaulting inflation of recent months -- and that is a good thing.

Transport operators and food retailers who were quick to raise their prices on higher fuel prices but reluctant to lower them when pump prices declined are beginning to bow to this imperative or risk a diminishing customer base. Concurrently, their genuine difficulties in keeping their fares and price tags at realistic levels for decent profit margins have also been brought to the fore, and what promises to be a more rational, annualised, mechanism on fair pricing for bus and taxi services is in the offing.

All in all, then, the various and ongoing upheavals in the domestic and global economies may be having beneficial effects in rationalising markets and prices, both top-down, in terms of government policies, and bottom-up, in the more measured operation of free-market principles. Better pricing practices, longer-term outlooks on markets, heightened efficiency in services and pragmatism in policy constitute the silver lining on the cloud of economic uncertainty hanging over the world at present.