General Authority for Statistics: Saudi economy grows by 7% in the third quarter of 2021

According to estimates of the General Authority for Statistics (GaStat), Saudi GDP increased by 7.0% in real terms in the third quarter of 2021 compared to the same quarter of 2020. In comparison to Q2/2021 real GDP growth was 5.7% in Q3/2021.

Economic growth was mainly driven by oil activities, which increased by 9.3% year-on-year (12.7% q-o-q). Non-oil activities grew by 6.3% (y-o-y) and 2.6% (q-o-q), government activities by 2.7% (y-o-y) and 1.1% (q-o-q).

Domestic demand developed very strongly in Q3/2021 with private final consumption growing by 9.7% (y-o-y; 2.8% q-o-q) and gross fixed capital formation growing by 13.5% (y-o-y; 3.6% q-o-q). External demand was also an important growth factor in Q3/2021 with exports growing by 14.2% (y-o-y; 7.3% q-o-q). Imports grew by 8.3% (y-o-y), but declined by 2.8% compared to the previous quarter. Government final consumption expenditure decreased by 1.1% on an annual basis, but expanded by 0.8% compared to the previous quarter.

All economic activities recorded a positive annual growth in the third quarter of 2021. Petroleum Refining activities recorded the highest growth rates of 19.2% (y-o-y) and 1.4% (q-o-q), followed by Financial, Insurance, and Business services activities with a growth of 13.4% (yo-y) and 12.7% (q-o-q). Wholesale & Retail trade, Restaurants & Hotels activities grew at 10.8%(y-o-y), and 2.7%(q-o-q). On the other hand, Manufacturing excluding Petroleum Refining activity recorded a positive growth of 4.8% (y-o-y), while declined by 1.6% (q-o-q).

The size of economy and the contribution of economic activities at current prices In the third quarter of 2021, GDP of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia amounted to 820,148 million riyals at current prices. Non-oil activities contributed 48.4% in the gross value added at current prices, while oil activities contributed 32.9% and government activities contributed 18.7%.

On the level of economic activities and their contribution to GDP, Crude Petroleum and natural gas activities achieved the highest contribution with 26.6%, followed by Government services activities 17.4%, followed by Wholesale & Retail trade, Restaurants & Hotels activities with a contribution of 9.3%.