The Boston Globe runs this Reuters article on inflation in Saudi Arabia. The piece notes that wages are not keeping up with inflation and that pay raises have been lower than in other Gulf States. But foreign workers—among those most hard hit by inflation—still see the country as a better place to work.

The article talks with a number of Saudis about how inflation is affecting them directly. For some, particularly at the lower end of the economic scale, the effects are serious. For the middle class and above, they’re managing it. Interesting reading.

Suffering is relative for inflation-hit Saudis
Andrew Hammond

RIYADH (Reuters) - With inflation rising across the Gulf Arab region, Saudi Arabia’s perennial problem of unequal distribution of wealth has never been so obvious.

While poor Saudis queue for hours to obtain water in the kingdom’s second city Jeddah, others are able to take advantage of America’s new-found disdain for gas-guzzling four-wheel-drives by snapping up imported cars.

Thousands of couples are cutting costs by forgoing individual weddings in favor of mass ceremonies carried out by a charity backed by Saudi princes. But the affluent are still going on holidays, albeit opting for cheaper stays in neighboring Arab countries rather than trips to Europe or Asia.

Surging oil prices have triggered a turnaround in Saudi Arabia’s economic fortunes and a return to some of the big spending — by wealthy individuals and the monarchy — that characterized the 1970s and 1980s.

But the economic boom has also stoked prices for food and fuel, leading to discontent in a rapidly changing country where around two-thirds of the 17 million-strong local population are under 30, educated and outspoken and aware of events abroad.
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