In a competitive equilibrium the price of a natural resource will be increasing at a rate equal to the social time preference rate, but in a monopoly market, the price will be increasing at less than social time preference rate. If the producer countries utilise their monopoly of production and sale of a natural resource for the purpose of developing their economies, the price of the natural resource will be growing at the rate at which the producer countries\u27 economies are growing, whether or not the sales proceeds are used to finance their investment programmes, fully or partly
