A look at Saudi Arabia’s key economic indicators and forecasts

As the highly anticipated Future Investment Initiative (FII) 2018 conference gets underway in Riyadh, Argaam has compiled a list of Saudi Arabia’s key economic indicators and forecasts.

Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow by 2.1 percent this year and 2.3 percent in 2019, according to the Ministry of Finance.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had previously raised its forecasts for Saudi GDP growth to 2.2 percent this year, and 2.4 percent in 2019.

Revenue for the 2019 state budget is estimated at around SAR 978 billion, an increase of 11 percent year-on-year, while expenditure is forecast to rise 7 percent.

Meanwhile, the deficit is expected to continue to decline gradually over the medium term, from 4.1 percent of GDP in 2019 to 3.7 percent of GDP in 2021.

GDP grew by 1.4 percent in H1 2018, compared to -0.8 percent in the same period last year. Non-oil GDP recorded growth of 2 percent in the first half, compared to 0.1 percent in H1 2017.

Oil GDP rose 1 percent to SAR 552.32 billion in H1 2018, contributing 42.9 percent to the Kingdom’s GDP, compared to 43.1 percent a year earlier.

* Preliminary data.