Saudi Arabia’s GDP grows 9.6 per cent in Q1 2022

Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) has published its flash estimates of the kingdom’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate for Q1 2022.

It reveals that the Saudi’s GDP recorded the highest growth rate in the past 10 years, achieving a growth of 9.6 per cent during the first quarter of 2022 compared to the corresponding period in 2021, according to Saudi Press Agency.

The growth in GDP was reportedly driven by “a significant increase in oil activities by 20.4 per cent, in addition to an increase in non-oil activities by 3.7 per cent and an increase in government services activities by 2.4 per cent.”

A flash estimate of quarterly GDP is defined as a process of estimating the quarterly national accounts conducted during a short period after the end of the reference quarter and is published 30 days after the end of the reference quarter when the data relating to the quarter is still incomplete.

The figures also indicated that the seasonally adjusted real GDP in the kingdom grew by 2.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the previous year. This increase was due to the growth in oil activities by 2.9 per cent, and an increase in non-oil activities by 2.5 per cent, while government services activities decreased by 0.9 per cent.

According to previously released data, Saudi Arabia’s real GDP for the year 2021 grew by 3.2 per cent.

The growth resulted from the economy recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic through the growth of non-oil activities by 6.1 per cent, while government activities grew by 1.5 per cent, and oil activities expanded by 0.2 per cent.

The kingdom’s real GDP grew by 6.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year compared to Q4 2020 and 1.6 per cent compared to Q3 2021. That growth was mainly attributed to the increase in oil activities (10.9 per cent year-on-year). Furthermore, non-oil activities also increased 5.1 per cent, while government activities expanded by 2.4 per cent, according to the GDP and National Accounts report for the fourth quarter of 2021, released by GASTAT.

Read: Saudi Arabia’s real GDP grows 3.2% in 2021