‎“Moody’s”: We expect non-oil sector to extend a strong ‎contribution to Saudi economy

Moody’s report on the preliminary statement of the Saudi 2024 budget revealed that it is expected that the contribution of non-oil activity to the Kingdom’s gross domestic product will remain strong during the current year and over the next two years as the pace of implementation of mega projects accelerates.

Moody’s added that this is despite the decline in oil production for the current year until the end of September by 6.5% compared to the corresponding period last year.

According to Al Arabiya, the agency explained that among the sectors that provide opportunities to diversify the economy in the long term are the entertainment and tourism sectors.

While Moody’s expected that the oil sector in the Kingdom will remain the main source of income in the foreseeable future, noting that the economic gains, especially the financial ones, from the non-oil economy will take some time to become tangible.

The Saudi government announced that preliminary estimates indicate that total revenues in 2024 will reach about 1.172 billion riyals, a slight decrease of 0.6% from what is expected to be achieved in 2023. This is due to the government’s approach to basing estimates of oil and non-oil revenues in the budget on conservative standards, in anticipation of any developments that may occur in the local and global economy.