Preliminary official estimates released today, Thursday, indicate that the Saudi GDP grew at a rate of 6.8% in the last quarter of last year, bringing the annual growth rate to 3.3%. The Saudi General Authority for Statistics stated that this growth was driven by a 10.8% increase in oil activities and a 5% increase in non-oil activities. Government services grew by 2.4%.
The authority attributed the positive growth to the significant rise in oil activities by 10.8% along with the increase in non-oil activities by 5%, and reported a 2.4% growth in government services. The authority noted that the seasonally adjusted real GDP rose by 1.6% in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to the third quarter of 2021, due to the positive growth in oil activities by 1.8% and an increase in non-oil activities by 1.5%, with government services reporting a growth of 1.2%.
The real GDP for 2021 recorded a growth rate of 3.3% compared to the decline of 4.1% observed in 2020. Monika Malik, Chief Economist at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, stated, "The increase in oil production reflected in the GDP data for the last quarter and supported the real growth of the oil sector. We expect this trend to continue in 2022 with a larger increase in oil production."
According to data from the Saudi Statistics Authority, the growth achieved in 2021 is the fastest in six years, following a growth rate of 3.6% in 2015. The authority indicated that the rise in real GDP in 2021 resulted from the economy's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, with non-oil activities growing by 6.6%, while government services achieved a growth rate of 1.5%, and oil activities recorded a growth of 0.2%.
Saudi Arabia's real GDP had grown by 7% in the third quarter of 2021 and by 1.9% in the second quarter of the same year, after a decline of 2.6% in the first quarter of 2021, according to the General Authority for Statistics data.
The growth of the Saudi economy in 2021 exceeded the Saudi Ministry of Finance's initial projections, which estimated a real GDP growth of 2.9% for the year. The ministry's preliminary estimates for 2022 suggested a real GDP growth of 7.4%, driven by an increase in oil GDP and an expected improvement in non-oil GDP, assuming a continued gradual recovery from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
