Saudi Arabia revises up GDP figures

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia revised its GDP figures for the second quarter of this year on the back of strong growth in the private sector and non-oil activities, despite a slowdown in its oil sector, Arab News quote official data, as showing.

The kingdom’s private sector grew 11 per cent in the second quarter, compared with the same period last year, pushing GDP up 1.8 per cent from 1.5 per cent, the General Authority for Statistics (Gastat) reported last month.

The data represents a rebound after five consecutive quarters of year-on-year declines, including a 7 per cent drop in the second quarter of 2020 when the lockdowns to slow the spread of the pandemic took effect globally.

Today’s figures from Gastat showed an 8.4 per cent growth in the kingdom’s non-oil sector, while the oil sector contracted 6.9 per cent with the kingdom curtailing production under its agreement with Opec+. The government sector grew 2.3 percent, Gastat showed.

The economic activities in the kingdom showed moderate recovery from the pandemic, with transactions in community, social, and personal services growing at the highest rate of 17.1 per cent.

Retail, as well as the restaurants and hotel industry, jumped 16.9 per cent, while the manufacturing sector grew 15.3 per cent.