The non-oil sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia grew by 2.7 percent in the first quarter of this year, compared with 2.3 percent in the same period of last year, while the Kingdom witnessed a 4 percent increase in the value of its total exports, on an annual basis amounting to $72 billion in the first three months of 2019.
A report by Jadwa Investment and Asset Management Research predicted the growth of the non-oil sector to rise to 2.4 percent in 2019, compared with 1.7 percent in 2018, while the forecasts for the non-oil sector growth was 2.7 percent in 2020.
According to actual GDP data for the first quarter of 2019, the Saudi economy expanded by 1.7 percent year-on-year, while the Saudi total exports increased 4 percent year-on-year to $72 billion in the first quarter of 2019, with the exports of petrochemicals, plastics, rubber and metals accounting for 71 per cent of total non-oil exports.
Saudi Arabia's current account maintained surplus, with a value of $11.5 billion in the first quarter, equivalent to 5.9 per cent of GDP.
Source (Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Edited)
