A final interesting pattern is in the Middle East. There we
find oil-rich nations such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, which have income levels close to those of our top thirty. Yet if the oil price fell, they would quickly fall back down the
table. Middle Eastern countries with little or no oil, such as Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, all cluster around a level of
income similar to that of Guatemala or Peru. Without oil, Middle Eastern countries are also all poor, though, like
those in Central America and the Andes, not so poor as
those in sub-Saharan Africa.