ABSTRACT
In ldcs demand for refined oil products ceased growing at its accustomed 5" 13" annual rate and fell back to a 1" 6" growth rate. In aggregate terms the NOPECs experienced a fall in GDP growth from a 7.3" increase in 1973 to 5.3" the following year, then 4.1" in 1975. No ldcs were free of negative deviations in the 196773 period. Only a further two ldcs experienced a single year of negative deviations after 1973: the mode number of below-trend years during 19748 was two, with ten ldcs. A further seven ldcs experienced three below-trend years and three more experienced four below-trend years. The various tests carried out to assess the growth patterns of two samples of ldcs before and after the 1973 oil price rises do not show that the post-1973 period was more than normally turbulent. This chapter looks at the extent to which national growth rates differed after 1973.
