Saudi foreign trade volume hit SR 500 billion during Q1, down ‎‎4.8%‎

Saudi Ministry of Investment revealed that the volume of foreign trade recorded a decrease of 4.8% in the first quarter of 2023 on an annual basis, and the trade balance witnessed a decrease of 39.2% during the same period, as a result of a decrease in total exports by 14.6% during the same period, indicating Total imports increased by 18.1% in the first quarter of 2023, with a total of 186.4 billion riyals.

The monthly bulletin, issued in June 2023, regarding the performance of the most prominent economic and investment indicators in the Kingdom, indicated that the trade balance recorded the highest growth rate in the previous two years in the second quarter of 2021, with an increase rate that reached 1867%, and in the third quarter, the trade balance increased by 243%. In the fourth quarter, its increase rate reached 305%, with a total increase of 244% in 2021 for the trade balance, and it continued to rise in 2022 until it recorded the first decrease in the fourth quarter of 2022, at a rate of 12.3%.

In details explained by the General Authority for Statistics, the volume of foreign trade amounted to about 500 billion riyals, a decrease of 4.8%, while the volume of the trade balance amounted to about 127 billion riyals, a decrease of 39.2%, due to the decrease in exports, which amounted to about 314 billion. SAR, a decrease of 14.6%

The General Authority for Statistics indicated the most important exported commodities, which include mineral products with a value of 246.4 billion riyals, followed by chemical industry products with a value of 21.4 billion riyals, then plastics and rubber and their products with a value of 16 billion riyals, followed by ordinary metals and their manufactures with a value of about 7 billion riyals, and finally vehicles. Aircraft, ships and similar transport equipment at a value of about 6 billion riyals.