The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is making its way towards heading the world’s countries, topping the list of the fastest growing economy in the world.
This came after the announcement of the Reserve Bank of India, which declared that its growth expectations have reached 6.8% by the end of March last year, leaving the forefront to Saudi Arabia as a result of the high energy prices.
According to official estimates from the Saudi General Authority of Statistics, the growth of the Saudi economy increased by 8.8% during the third quarter of last year compared to the same period of 2021, mainly due to a significant increase in oil-related activities.
Last December, the Saudi Council of Ministers approved the state’s general budget for the fiscal year 2023, with a total expenditure of 1.114 trillion riyals, revenues of approximal 1.130 trillion riyals, and a surplus of 16 billion riyals.
The Saudi General Authority of Statistics also announced recently that the real GDP increased by 8.8% during the third quarter of 2022, in comparison to the same period of 2021.
The authority stated that the increase in Saudi domestic product during the third quarter was driven by the increase achieved by oil activities by 14.2%, while non-oil activities increase by 6%. Government activities also recorded a growth of 2.5% on an annual basis.
On the other hand, the gross domestic product amounted to 1.036 trillion riyals at current prices in the third quarter of this year according to the Statistics Authority, through which crude oil and natural gas activities achieved the highest contribution among economic activities, reaching 35.2%, followed by government services of 14.1%, then manufacturing industries, excluding oil refining, with a contribution of 7.8%.
On an annual basis, all economic activities witnessed positive growth rates, of which crude oil and natural gas achieved the highest growth rates amounting to 14.8% on an annual basis, and 5.2% on a quarterly basis, followed by manufacturing industries, except for oil refining, with an annual growth of 11% and a quarterly-basis decrease of 2.3%.
Furthermore, transportation, storage and communications activities achieved growth rates of 9% on an annual basis, and 3.3% on a quarterly basis.
It is worth noting that Saudi Arabia is expected to displace India from the top of the fastest growing economies in the world this year, with a growth rate of 7.6%, which makes Saudi Arabia the first in the world in terms of economic growth, after the announcement of the Reserve Bank of India which declared that its growth expectations reached 6.8% by the end of March last year, leaving the forefront to Saudi Arabia as a result of the high energy prices.
