Saudi exports hit $137 billion
Exports rose by 13%
More than double since 2016
Saudi Arabia’s exports of goods and services – excluding oil – hit a record SAR515 billion ($137 billion) last year, the state-run SPA news agency reported, as the world’s second largest oil producer seeks to diversify its economy away from hydrocarbons.
The exports, which include re-exports, rose 13 percent over the last year and have more than doubled in the nearly 10 years since 2016 when Saudi Arabia released its Vision 2030 economic transformation and social development strategy, SPA said, citing the Saudi Exports Development Authority (Seda).
Exports of non-oil goods, including petrochemicals, rose 4 percent to SAR217 billion, the SPA said. Petrochemicals were up 2 percent.
Exports of services climbed 14 percent to a record SAR207 billion, a more than three-fold increase since 2016, SPA reported. The rise in travel and tourism was almost four-fold or 270 percent.
The performance reflects “sustained efforts in economic diversification and enhancing the competitiveness of national products,” Abdulrahman Althukair, Seda CEO said, according to SPA.
In 2023, the year for which the most recent figures are available, Saudi Arabia exported $181 billion of crude oil. Non-oil goods account for between 25 and 30 percent of total Saudi goods exports.
A drop in crude oil prices this year is likely to weigh on the kingdom’s non-oil economy later this year, London-based Capital Economics said in a report on Monday.
“Saudi Arabia’s economy enjoyed a relatively strong start to the year underpinned by its non-oil sector,” James Swanston, senior Middle East and North Africa economist, writes in the report.
“But while GDP growth will accelerate this year as oil output rises, the coinciding slip in oil prices is already resulting in a firmer turn to fiscal consolidation that will weigh on non-oil activity later this year.”
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