#Saudi first quarter GDP shrinks 3%, hit by oil sector decline | Reuters

Saudi first quarter GDP shrinks 3%, hit by oil sector decline | Reuters

Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product fell 3% in the first quarter, slightly less than official estimates and compared with a 1% contraction last year, as a sharp fall in the oil sector pulled back the economy, data showed.

The kingdom’s economy has been hit hard by the twin shock of last year’s historic oil price crash and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The non-oil sector grew 2.9%, from 1.6% growth a year earlier, while the oil sector declined by 11.7% which was a much sharper fall than the 4.6% contraction a year earlier, the General Authority for Statistics said in a statement on Monday.

In flash estimates in May the authority said the economy shrank 3.3% in the first quarter and the non-oil sector grew for the first since the first quarter of 2020.

The non-oil and private sectors are at the centre of Vision 2030, de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s transformation plan to wean the Saudi economy off oil.