ECONOMIC COOPERATION PRACTICES AND DEVELOPMENT TRENDS IN MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRIES

Annotatsiya

This thesis analyses economic development patterns and regional integration processes in the Middle East, using Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar as reference economies. It compares the scale of output, the sectoral composition of gross domestic product, hydrocarbon endowment and the geography of foreign trade, and it links these structural features to the depth of regional integration. The findings show that the three economies differ less in their dependence on hydrocarbon rents than in the way those rents are converted into non-hydrocarbon activity, and that low intra-regional trade remains the central constraint on integration in the region