This isn't about postponing the filling of your tank. The connection between fuel prices and virtually all aspects of the economy is systematic, not incidental, and often indirect, and rather counter-intuitive - from food industries to heavy industry, to utility services, even to real estate, virtually all industries are affected in one way or another. Falling fuel prices impact the macroeconomic situation in a very tangible way:
"...For producers, cheaper prices mean either less profits or even losses, which leads to a slower national economic expansion. In other words, right now oil supplies are outstripping demand and causing commodity prices to fall. At the point in time they would dip below the point to where producers could profit, they most likely stop digging - and stop hiring, or even start firing. That’s economics 101. But, in keeping with the scholastic parallels here, the economic and political curves won’t immediately intersect." (source)
And,
"While there are clear cost savings for American drivers, the situation is likely to put pressure on the country’s thriving shale oil market - part of the recent U.S. “energy boom.” As The Economist explains in its December 2014 report, “The New Economics of Oil: Sheikhs vs. Shale,” U.S. fracking and energy firms could eventually see investment dry up in the short-term if oil prices remains this low. And lower prices for fossil fuels may well postpone the hard decisions needed for the country to transition to a more energy-efficient economy and to help reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and mitigate climate change." (source)
And,
"The bottom line is that the sizable decline in the price of oil since June 2014 is unambiguously negative for the Canadian economy. ... The energy price decline will reduce aggregate income. Indeed, even though real GDP grew by 2.4% in the fourth quarter of 2014, the real incomes of Canadians contracted. This occurred because the world price of an important export product declined. And that means a loss of purchasing power for Canadians." (source)
"...For producers, cheaper prices mean either less profits or even losses, which leads to a slower national economic expansion. In other words, right now oil supplies are outstripping demand and causing commodity prices to fall. At the point in time they would dip below the point to where producers could profit, they most likely stop digging - and stop hiring, or even start firing. That’s economics 101. But, in keeping with the scholastic parallels here, the economic and political curves won’t immediately intersect." (source)
And,
"While there are clear cost savings for American drivers, the situation is likely to put pressure on the country’s thriving shale oil market - part of the recent U.S. “energy boom.” As The Economist explains in its December 2014 report, “The New Economics of Oil: Sheikhs vs. Shale,” U.S. fracking and energy firms could eventually see investment dry up in the short-term if oil prices remains this low. And lower prices for fossil fuels may well postpone the hard decisions needed for the country to transition to a more energy-efficient economy and to help reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and mitigate climate change." (source)
And,
"The bottom line is that the sizable decline in the price of oil since June 2014 is unambiguously negative for the Canadian economy. ... The energy price decline will reduce aggregate income. Indeed, even though real GDP grew by 2.4% in the fourth quarter of 2014, the real incomes of Canadians contracted. This occurred because the world price of an important export product declined. And that means a loss of purchasing power for Canadians." (source)
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