If you’ve been following recent market trends, or if you drive a car, you know that petroleum and petroleum products (gasoline) have been getting cheaper for the past 18 months or so. The reasons for the decline are complicated to say the least involving OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and are a story for another time, but the truncated story is that Saudi Arabia is forcing prices down because they can produce oil much cheaper than any other country, causing other oil exporting countries to lose money for producing oil. However, this seems to have been having an odd effect on the economy within Saudi Arabia. For those who are curious, there is a good article here. It will be interesting to see the implications of this, considering Saudi Arabia is considered one of the more stable countries in the region.
Everyday economics from the University of Puget Sound