Yep the Saudis are alot better off....
While Saudis don't feel the pain at the pump, they feel it everywhere else, paying more at grocery stores and restaurants and for rent and construction material. While the country is getting richer selling oil at prices that climbed to a record $145 per barrel last week, inflation has reached almost 11 percent, breaking double-digits for the first time since the late 1970s.
"Gas prices are low here, so what?" said Muhammad Abdullah, a 60-year-old retiree. "What can I do with gas? Drink it? Take it with me to the supermarket?"
Al-Mazeen says his monthly grocery bill has doubled _ to $215 _ compared to last year, when oil was at around $70 a barrel. During that time period, the price of rice has doubled to about 72 cents a pound, and a pound of beef has gone up more than a third to about $4.
Moreover, Saudis are grappling with unemployment _ estimated at 30 percent among young people aged 16 to 26 _ and a stock market that is down 10 percent since the beginning of the year.
Many Saudis are realizing that this oil boom will not have the same impact as the one in the 1970s, which raised Saudis from rags to riches. This time, the wealth isn't trickling down as fast or in the same quantities.
One reason is the kingdom's growing population, says John Sfakianakis, chief economist at the Saudi British Bank. In the 1970s, the population of Saudi Arabia was 9.5 million. Today, it's 27.6 million, including 22 million Saudi citizens.
That means the state, which controls nearly all oil income, has to spread the wealth among more people. Besides a generous social welfare system that includes free education from pre-school through university and other benefits for citizens, the public sector employs some 2 million people and 65 percent of the budget goes to salaries.
"The state, yes, is wealthier, but the state has close to three times the amount of people it has to cater for," said Sfakianakis. "Even if Saudi Arabia had lower inflation (in the 1970s), the country and the needs of the country are bigger than what they used to be."
So the government has less room to raise wages to help people deal with higher prices. The United Arab Emirates recently hiked public sector wages by 70 percent _ but if the Saudis did the same, they would have been hit by budget deficits, Sfakianakis added.
Other Gulf nations have been hit even worse by inflation. In the UAE, inflation is expected to reach 12 percent this year, and in Qatar it's at 14 percent, according to a Merrill Lynch report earlier this year.
But those nations have much smaller populations and so can spread their oil, gas and financial riches faster and in bigger quantities to ease the pain. As a result _ contrary to their image in the West _ Saudis are far from the wealthiest people in the Gulf. The kingdom's per capita income is $20,700 _ compared with $67,000 for Qatar, which has a population of around a half million citizens.
Amid oil boom, inflation makes Saudis feel poorer
No it's a fact dumbass, the price of oil rose 200% globally, that's not oil companies gouging anybody...
