ABSTRACT
Critics such as Hunter (1984) have argued that the seemingly generous Arab aid is still likely to be lower and perhaps much lower than the economic loss to developing countries in the form of higher prices for oil and natural gas as a consequence of the exercise of market power by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), of which Arab countries are the main members. Whatever one might think about such an argument, in principle there is nothing that forces Arab countries to share a substantial part of their wealth, which is undoubtedly built on oil and natural gas, with poorer developing countries in the form of aid. Furthermore, with similar reasoning one could question whether Western countries provide any net financial resources at all to developing countries given the enormous flows of money going out of developing countries in order to serve their debt obligations.
