The magic number is a term in economics that denotes the price of crude oil (measured in dollars per barrel) at which a crude oil exporting economy runs a deficit.
The magic number denotes the point at which the revenue from oil is no longer sufficient to pay for spending.
Mathematically, this can be expressed by the inequality: where Q is the quantity of oil exported, P is the price, and S is spending.
The magic number is the value of P at which this inequality no longer holds true — that is, that the economy runs a deficit.
PFC Energy publishes the magic number for all the OPEC nations.