INTRODUCTION “Resource
Curse” is the term widely used in economic and development literature to refer to the paradox of countries with
abundance of natural resources having less economic growth than
countries
without natural resources. It is a term used to describe a situation
where
countries endowed with natural resources are not
able to use such wealth
to grow their economies, raise the
standard of living of the citizens and
engender development.
Globally,”
this disconnect between natural resources wealth and
economic growth can be seen
clearly
by looking at an example from
the oil producing countries. From 1965 to 1998, in the OPEC countries,
gross
national product per capita growth
decreased on average by 1.3% while in the rest of the developing world, per capita growth was an average 2.2%.
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