Saudi Arabia’s real GDP grows 8.8% in third quarter

Saudi Arabia’s real gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 8.8 per cent in the third quarter of 2022, compared to the same period last year, according to a new report.

The real GDP growth in the third quarter was up 2.1 per cent compared to the second quarter of the year, a report by the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) revealed.

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Real GDP Grows by 8.8% in Q3 of 2022.

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Oil activities in the third quarter increased 14.2 per cent year-on-year, and 4.5 per cent quarter-on-quarter. Meanwhile, non-oil activities in the kingdom grew 6 per cent year-on-year but decreased by 0.5 per cent quarter-on-quarter.

“All economic activities showed positive annual growth in the third quarter of 2022. Crude petroleum and natural gas activities grew at the highest rate of 14.8 per cent y-o-y (5.2 per cent q-o-q), followed by manufacturing excluding petroleum refining activities with a growth of 11 per cent y-o-y, while decreasing by 2.3 per cent q-o-q. Transport, storage and communication activities grew by 9 per cent y-o-y,” the report read.

Government activities also rose by 2.5 per cent in the third quarter compared to the same period a year ago. Crude petroleum and natural gas grew by 14.8 per cent year-on-year, thus contributing 35.2 per cent to the national GDP.

“The non-oil economic activities outside the government contributed with a share of 50.7 percent to GDP, with the manufacturing (excluding petroleum refining) with a share of 7.8 percent being the most important sub-category within the non-oil economy,” the report said.

Saudi Arabia boosted its forecast for next year’s budget surplus compared with projections made just three months ago. The government’s latest fiscal outlook showed it now expects to run a surplus of SAR16bn in 2023, nearly double a previous estimate of SAR9bn.

Read: Saudi Arabia sees 2023 budget surplus bump

Revenues are now set to reach SAR1.13tn, slightly more than projected earlier, while expenditure next year is expected at SAR1.114tn, unchanged from the government’s estimate published in September.