Travel and tourism, transport, ICT, insurance & finance, refined petroleum oil, crude petroleum oil, petroleum gases, polymers, electronics, machinery, automotive, chemicals, metals, agriculture and textiles are major industries of Saudi Arabia.
In 2018, Services industry exports was valued at USD 19.7 billion for Saudi Arabia. Electronics export accounted for USD 903 million, machinery for USD 1.60 billion, vehicles for USD 3.18 billion, chemicals for USD 42.9 billion, metals for USD 5.67 billion, minerals for USD 172 billion, stones for USD 1.53 billion, textiles for USD 754 million and agriculture for USD 4.29 billion in 2018.
Saudi Arabia, officially known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is the largest Arab state in Western Asia by land area approximately 830,000 square miles, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and the second largest in the Arab world, after Algeria. It shares its borders with Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait to the northeast, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to the east, Oman to the southeast, and Yemen in the south.
Saudi Arabia is estimated to have population of 34.764 million in the year 2020 and expected to reach 39.149 million by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 1.99%.
Saudi Arabia’s real gross domestic product (GDP) was SAR 2639.81 billion in 2019 and due to COVID-19 outbreak it contracted by 4.33% to be around SAR 2530.33 billion in 2020. It is expected to increase by 2.85% in 2021 and reach SAR 2604.48 billion.
Saudi Arabia’s unemployment rate was 5.89% of total labor force in 2019. Due to slowdown in global economic activity due to COVID-19 pandemic the unemployment increased by 20.41% and reached 7.4% in 2020. Unemployment is further estimated to decrease in 2021 by 18.88% and reach 6.225% of total labor force in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia’s per capita GDP was estimated at USD 20,178.23 whereas purchasing power parity (PPP) based per capita GDP was estimated to be at USD 46,810.63 for the year 2020.
In 2020, Saudi Arabia government’s revenue was SAR 769.022 billion whereas the expenditure was SAR 1060.81 billion. This resulted in Saudi Arabia government’s net lending / borrowing negative at SAR 291.789 billion in 2020 indicating that not enough financial resources were made available by the Saudi Arabia government to boost economic growth.
The current account balance for Saudi Arabia was estimated to be negative at USD 14.956 billion for the year 2020 and is expected to further increase at a CAGR of 3.35% and reach negative USD 12.192 billion by 2026. This negative current account balance indicates that Saudi Arabia will remain a net borrower from the rest of the world till 2026.
In World Bank’s ease of doing business ranking Saudi Arabia was ranked 63 out of 190 countries in 2020. Saudi Arabia’s ease of doing business ranking declined from 62nd position in 2019
*If Applicable.