One of the biggest challenges from petroleum wealth comes from a subsequent loss of international competitiveness. Resource wealth can easily inflate the local economy, making it more difficult for other economic sectors to maintain international competitiveness. This chapter introduces the challenge of Dutch Disease and its diverse remedies. The latter part of the chapter describes how Norway has always struggled with the need to maintain international competitiveness, and has developed a highly organized economy (corporatism) as a result. Norwegian incomes policy, responsible budgeting policies, devaluations, and a restricted pace of extraction have all been used, at various times, to limit the threat of a real exchange rate appreciation.
