These countries now must determine how to avoid the “resource curse” – an all-too-common affliction whereby rising resource revenues lead to volatility, rent seeking, and corruption, while spurring real exchange-rate appreciation and wage increases, thereby undermining other economic sectors’ competitiveness. The key will be to capture the oil revenues and invest them wisely, thereby converting below-ground assets into above-ground assets that yield an adequate rate of return and stimulate economic development.