ABSTRACT
Economic growth is perhaps the greatest source of change in any society, because it impinges upon every aspect of a society’s way of life. This chapter provides details of countries of the Middle East with percentages of their Gross Domestic Product in economic sectors. Economic growth is one of the major elements which determine the rate of change in modern Middles East societies. The other is urbanisation which does not necessarily follow patterns of economic growth. The rate of economic development of a society is partly a function of the investment which that society will have to undertake in order to grow. For many Middle Eastern countries, mostly in the non-oil producing category, the rate of investment is rarely, if ever, fast enough because the capital required in the sector of the given economy is not being generated adequately. One of the countries which fit the classification of an economy short of investment capacity is Jordan.
