Murray was beaten for the first time since Kei Nishikori defeated him in the quarter-finals of the US Open in September when Novak Djokovic won Sunday's Qatar Open final in three sets.
Even though the result in Doha brought Murray's excellent run to an end, he has strengthened his standing due to the way the rankings work.
The winner of the Qatar event collects 250 points but Djokovic won last year's tournament as well so simply retained his haul from 12 months ago.
Murray, on the other hand, played at the Hopman Cup last year where there are no ranking points available.
As such, the 150 points he earned in the Middle East are added to his total and he now has a lead of 630 points over Djokovic rather than the 480 he held previously.
That means Murray - who replaced Djokovic as world No 1 after 122 weeks - will be the top seed for the Australian Open, which starts in Melbourne next week.
The Scot needs to reach at least the semi-finals to guarantee he will remain number one and having progressed to the final there five times, he will be optimistic of doing that at least.
Should Murray leave Australia still top of the list, he will then have a chance to extend the gap over Djokovic once again.
Having become a father last February for the first time, he took a few weeks off to be with his wife Kim and their newborn daughter Sophia Olivia.
That means Murray only stands to gain ranking points from events over the same period of time this year.
Djokovic, by contrast, is at risk of losing points due to the fact he dominated in the early part of the 2016 season and even if he retains titles, he will only retain points too rather than collect more.
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