Equatorial Guinea has higher GDP per capita than UK, but three out of four people live in poverty
"Home to over one billion barrels of oil reserves, Equatorial Guinea has exported as many as 400,000 barrels of oil a day since 1995, a bonanza that has made the country wealthier, in terms of GDP per capita, than France, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Little of this wealth, however, has helped the vast majority of Equatorial Guinea’s 700,000 people: today, three out of every four Equatorial Guineans live on less than $2 a day, and infant mortality rates in the country have barely budged since oil was first discovered there. The president’s family members and other elites connected to the Obiang regime, meanwhile, have prospered"
Larry Diamond and Jack Mosbacher, "Petroleum to the People Africa’s Coming Resource Curse—and How to Avoid It," Foreign Affairs, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2013 ISSUE http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/139647/larry-diamond-and-jack-mos... [verified 4/15/14]