Economic activity surprises markets to the upside: According to a preliminary reading, GDP growth edged up to 4.5% year on...
Economic Growth in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia's GDP growth over the last decade partly tracked OPEC decisions on oil output, given the importance of the oil sector to GDP. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a sharp contraction, but recovery was underway by 2022, driven by the lifting of pandemic restrictions and successful economic diversification efforts boosting the non-oil economy. However, tough OPEC oil output cuts caused the economy to return to contraction in 2023 and to remain subdued in 2024, despite a buoyant non-oil sector.
In the year 2024, the economic growth in Saudi Arabia was 1.81%, compared to 4.02% in 2014 and 0.54% in 2023. It averaged 3.05% over the last decade. For more GDP information, visit our dedicated page.
Saudi Arabia GDP Chart
Note: This chart displays Economic Growth (GDP, annual variation in %) for Saudi Arabia from 2014 to 2024.
Source: Macrobond.
Saudi Arabia GDP Data
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Economic Growth (GDP, ann. var. %) | -3.8 | 6.5 | 12.0 | 0.5 | 2.0 |
| GDP (USD bn) | 767 | 982 | 1,237 | 1,218 | 1,239 |
| GDP (SAR bn) | 2,880 | 3,685 | 4,647 | 4,570 | 4,649 |
| Economic Growth (Nominal GDP, ann. var. %) | -13.6 | 28.0 | 26.1 | -1.7 | 1.7 |
| Economic Growth (GDP non-Oil, ann. var. %) | -1.7 | 8.9 | 10.7 | 4.7 | 4.6 |
| Economic Growth (GDP Oil, ann. var. %) | -7.4 | 2.0 | 14.5 | -9.0 | -4.4 |
Q1 GDP growth revised up in June
GDP reading: In a second release, annual GDP growth in Q1 was revised up to 3.4% (preliminary reading: +2.7% yoy), while remaining below the 4.4% expansion seen in the fourth quarter of last year. On a seasonally adjusted quarter-on-quarter basis, economic growth improved moderately to 1.1% in Q1 (preliminary reading: +0.9% qoq s.a.), following the previous quarter's 0.9% growth and marking the strongest expansion since Q1 2024.
Drivers: Household spending increased 4.5% in the first quarter, which was above the fourth quarter's 3.6% expansion. Public consumption rebounded, growing 5.2% in Q1 (Q4 2024: -6.9% yoy). Meanwhile, fixed investment rebounded, growing 8.5% in Q1, following the 4.2% contraction logged in the prior quarter. Exports of goods and services growth fell to 1.5% in Q1, marking the worst reading since Q2 2024 (Q4 2024: +5.3% yoy). Meanwhile, imports of goods and services growth moderated to 2.7% in Q1 (Q4 2024: +10.5% yoy).
Panelist insight: EIU analysts said: “Economic growth over the next two years will benefit from a gradual phasing out of voluntary constraints on oil production, as agreed with Saudi Arabia’s OPEC+ partners. Growth over the forecast period (2025-29) as a whole will also be driven by a rising contribution from non-oil sectors, such as tourism, manufacturing and mining.”
Consensus Forecasts and Projections for the next ten years
How should you choose a forecaster if some are too optimistic while others are too pessimistic? FocusEconomics collects Saudi Arabian GDP projections for the next ten years from a panel of 28 analysts at the leading national, regional and global forecast institutions. These projections are then validated by our in-house team of economists and data analysts and averaged to provide one Consensus Forecast you can rely on for each indicator. By averaging all forecasts, upside and downside forecasting errors tend to cancel each other out, leading to the most reliable GDP forecast available for Saudi Arabian GDP.
Download one of our sample reports to visualize what a Consensus Forecast is and see our Saudi Arabian GDP projections.
Want to get access to the full dataset of Saudi Arabian GDP forecasts? Send an email to info@focus-economics.com.
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