This Selected Issues paper on Saudi Arabia assesses Saudi Arabia’s role in the oil market and global economy. Saudi … Arabia, the world’s largest producer and exporter of oil, has long played a systemically important role in the global oil … market. Short-term fluctuations in Saudi Arabia’s oil production have partially reflected attempts to stabilize the global …

-2012, with a global repository of giant oil, gas, and mineral discoveries. We find strong and robust evidence of a 'fiscal … presource curse', id est, natural resources can jeopardize fiscal sustainability even before 'the first drop of oil is pumped …'. Specifically, we find that giant discoveries, mostly of oil and gas, lead to permanently higher government debt and, eventually …