The much-watched whisper issue in the Middle East centers on the ability of Saudi Arabia to transition their economy from its oil addiction. With a gaping hole in its 2016 budget having been closed to a greater degree in the first quarter of 2017, HSBC reports that causation for the closing of the deficit was an old Saudi ally: the price of oil. Can the strict religious society with a defined cast system break out and develop into a creative and flourishing economy in the Western sense of the concept? Or is it doomed to live and die by the sword of oil addiction forever?
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