(Washington Post) Howard Schneider - The nations of the Arab Middle East sit atop perhaps half of the planet's oil and a third of its natural gas reserves, yet the economies of the region are among the most stagnant. Growth in per capita income among the Arab countries has lagged behind Asia, Latin America and Africa for the past 30 years. In its 2009 Arab Human Development Report, the UN found that, as of 2007, the Arab states as a whole were less industrialized than they were in 1970, with governments using energy revenue to maintain a large public workforce and cheap goods.
2011-02-25 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive