There are few areas of economic policy-making in which the returns to good decisions are so high-and the punishment of bad decisions so cruel-as in the management of natural resource wealth. Rich endowments of oil, gas and minerals have set some countries on courses of sustained and robust...

Economic growth in Equatorial Guinea recovered sharply in 2007. The opening of a new oil field in late 2006 and a liquefied natural gas facility in mid-2007, supported by increased public infrastructure spending, lifted 2007 economic growth to an estimated 21.4 percent. Executive Directors have...