While government coffers may swell as a result of the high price of oil, many average Saudis are feeling a negative effect. Two articles appearing in the Saudi papers point to some of the problems.

Saudi Gazette reports (Price Rise: Who’s to Blame?) that higher oil prices mean higher costs to import goods. As most of Saudi Arabia’s food and other commodities are imported, this is a price rise across the board. The article points specifically to the rise in the price of rice, a Saudi staple.

Arab News reports (Abdullah Orders Compensation for Rash of Camel Deaths) on a strange case when hundreds of camels died. Many attribute their deaths to the herders substitution of low-quality feedstuffs for the usual—but now highly priced—barley. Herders, of course, are not at the top of the Saudi economic ladder. Deaths in their herds can wipe them out, so the government was fairly quick to step in with cash compensation for their losses.

The government, responding to higher oil incomes, has increased government salaries. It has also lowered the price of gasoline sold at the pump. It has not yet come up with a program to spread the new wealth to all sectors of the economy, however, particularly at the bottom.