The impact of natural resources on a country's economy: the case of Saudi Arabia

Due to the scarcity of natural resources, natural resources are important for the development of a country. With the development of natural resources in Saudi Arabia, economic development has grown rapidly. However, due to the instability of the international oil market, the real impact of the oil sector on Saudi Arabia's economic development was discussed in this thesis. The main purpose of this thesis is to test the relationship between natural resources and economic development, whether natural resources are a blessing or a curse for Saudi Arabia. In this thesis, we will mainly focus on oil sector, as oil is the most important natural resource of Saudi Arabia. The used data are from the period 1995 to 2020, mainly to study how the change in oil price affect Saudi Arabia's GDP during this period. The thesis uses time series method and economic model to investigate this topic. The findings of the study demonstrate the positive impact of changes in oil price on the real GDP of Saudi Arabia.