Talk:Economy of Saudi Arabia

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 29 October 2018 and 5 December 2018. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Mansourkuleib.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 20:07, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

GDP

Is this GDP correct? Right now it's about a million. With a GDP per capita of 16000 that means the population is 62 people. 140.180.166.176 (talk) 04:25, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

ECONOMIC OVERVIEW

The article seems to state that 45% of budget revenue comes from the petroleum sector. I happened to notice that the Saudi Arabia: Economy section of the online CIA World Factbook gives a different figure. It states "The petroleum sector accounts for roughly 80% of budget revenues, [and] 45% of GDP" <Retrieved March 7, 2010 from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sa.html>. One suspects that the CIA figure might be closer to the correct one in this case. Could someone look into it further?--FurnaldHall (talk) 21:13, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

PERCENTAGE OF NON-NATIONALS IN THE LABOR FORCE

Significantly, the same CIA page and section referred to above also states "Labor force 6.922 million....note: about 80% of force is non-national (2009 est.)." This may possibly even understate the case, both with regard to the size of the labor force and the percentage of non-nationals. Robert Lacey, in an excerpt from his new 2009 book on Saudi Arabia, Inside the Kingdom, states that in his judgment the population of native Saudis is 18 million, in addition to which there are 5-6 million legal foreign workers, and 4 to 5 million illegal (in the sense of being undocumented)foreign workers for a total population of twenty-eight million -- I think this would have been before the oil price crash. Regrettably I don't have the source in front of me, I think it may have been an excerpt from the book on the dailybeast.com; I jotted down the figures as I understood them.--FurnaldHall (talk) 21:18, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

UNEMPLOYMENT

At the same time as this high level of foreign employment exists, there is substantial unemployment among Saudi male youth. There are various metrics for this. The CIA (same section as above) gives overall unemployment as follows: "11.6% (2009 est.) ...11.8% (2008 est.) note: data are for Saudi males only (local bank estimates; some estimates range as high as 25%)" Other sources at various times have anecdotally given Saudi (male) youth employment rates as high as 50% (Retrieved March 5, 2010 from http://www.amazon.com/Paramedic-Prince-American-Paramedics-Mysterious/dp/1439245819/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267995043&sr=8-1  This is the Amazon page, "Look Inside" feature, for Patrick (Tom) Notestine's book Paramedic to the Prince: An American Paramedic's Account of Life Inside the Mysterious World of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia BookSurge, 2009, page 5. The exact phrase is "There is, at a guess, fifty percent unemployment among young Saudis...") I think that somehow one section of the article should include material on the labor force, its characteristics, and the possible political effects that ensue.--FurnaldHall (talk) 21:19, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Discovery of Oil

The article states that the USA actually discovered the oil. I don't believe thats the case. From what I know, oil was known to exist for centuries and was used for various reasons such as lighting and building. The US discovered the deep-huge oil wells, but not the existence of oil itself in the country. Unless someone can refute this soon I will edit it. 00:50, 11 January 2008 (EST) (Najdazy)

If you want to split hairs, the Christian God made the oil, not the Muslim one. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.165.6.225 (talk) 07:55, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

KNOWN OIL SEEPS IN SAUDI ARABIA PRIOR TO DISCOVERY OF OIL

I think I've also read somewhere that oil seeps to the surface in some places in Saudi Arabia, and the resulting substance (I assume with volatiles gone, resulting in a sticky mixture) has been used for centuries. The oil firms had heard of these seeps, and since they were an indicator of the presence of oil underground, were seeking their location during initial explorations. Perhaps the history is something like this -- British firms originally searched but could not find commercially viable oil deposits, but American firms, coming later, did. This information is, I believe, well covered in standard histories of the region; could someone check it and edit accordingly.

With regard to the next comment above, "If you want to split hairs, the Christian God made the oil, not the Muslim one.", I think I should very definitely leave such religious phrasing out of the article and if possible off the discussion pages. To me, hopefully incorrectly, it suggests a hostile, rather than the neutral point of view we are striving for, and in fact, it is quite incorrect as an analysis of the Islamic and Christian views of God ... I think. So far as I understand there is not thought to be a historical transition between one God and another in either Christianity or Islam (or for that matter, Judaism), only a transition in the forms of some people's religion as additional revelations were purportedly made, and to the degree that followers accepted or didn't accept that these were new guiding revelations and incorporated them. I think this comment potentially invites careful organizational oversight of the content of this article. --FurnaldHall (talk) 20:14, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Oil Industry

This section refers to a major new gas initiative in 3 separate parts of Saudi, where development should begin in 2002 ("A major new gas initiative promises to bring significant investment by U.S. and European oil companies to develop nonassociated gas fields in three separate parts of Saudi Arabia. Following final technical agreements with concession awardees in December 2001, development should begin in 2002.").

Is there anyway that this can be updated? Without knowing which initiative is being referred to (now in 2009 there are several either underway) it is not possible for other editors to bring this up to date.

Merger from Saudization

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.

The result of the discussion was not to merge the article. Bilby (talk) 23:51, 11 January 2012 (UTC)

---

Horrible idea to merge Saudization with this article. Saudization is a process of making all job-holders in KSA Saudis. This has enormous social implications throughout the world - definitely a notable event.

I suggest we get rid of the merger proposal. The best thing that can be done is expand the Saudization article, make a small section here that says main article: Saudization. Ratibgreat (talk) 07:22, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

External link to tariff data

Hello everyone, I am working for the International Trade Centre (ITC), a UN/WTO agency that aims to promote sustainable economic development through trade promotion. I would like to propose the addition of an external link (http://www.macmap.org/QuickSearch/FindTariff/FindTariff.aspx?subsite=open_access&country=SCC682%7cSaudi+Arabia &source=1|ITC Market Access Map) that leads directly to our online database of customs tariffs applied by Saudi Arabia. Visitors can easily look up market access information for Saudi Arabia by selecting the product and partner of their interest. I would like you to consider this link under the WP:ELYES #3 prescriptions. Moreover, the reliability and the pertinence of this link can be supported by the following facts 1) ITC is part of the United Nations, and aims to share trade and market access data on by country and product as a global public good 2) No registration is required to access this information 3) Market access data (Tariffs and non-tariff measures) are regularly updated

Thank you, Divoc (talk) 08:22, 16 October 2014 (UTC)

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Possible mistake.

" Ownership of land in Saudi Arabia is generally restricted to Saudi "

I don't think that it means what i think it means :\.

Saudis are allowed to own a land. Technical Peace (talk) 22:54, 3 September 2017 (UTC)

"Restricted to Saudis" here means that only Saudi can buy land, not other nationalities. Although as I understand it all GCC citizens can purchase real estate and also holders of the so-called "golden visas." Chagropango (talk) 05:17, 24 August 2022 (UTC)

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