Forbes reported that the Saudi economy has rebounded this year due to high oil prices caused by the war in Ukraine, bringing the kingdom closer to a trillion-dollar economy.
The IMF predicts that Saudi Arabia’s economy will grow by 7.6 percent for the year as a whole, bringing Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product to $1,040 billion, noting that there are 18 countries whose gross domestic product will exceed $1 trillion in 2021.
In first place is the US with a $23 trillion economy, second is China with $17.5 trillion, and third is Japan with $4.9 trillion. Saudi Arabia ranked nineteenth among the largest economies last year, but it was still far from the trillion dollar threshold with a gross domestic product of $834 billion.
According to the US Energy Information Administration, the average price of a barrel of Brent oil – the main international standard – is expected to exceed $104 this year, compared to $70.89 in 2021 and just $41.69 in 2020.
On July 31, government data showed that the Saudi economy grew 11.8% year on year in the second quarter, with the oil sector up 23.1% and the non-oil sector up 5.4%.
Thanks to higher oil prices due to the war in Ukraine, Riyadh posted a budget surplus of 77.9 billion rials ($20.8 billion) in the second quarter of this year, with oil revenues up almost 90 percent in on an annualized basis.
“We expect the (Saudi) budget to record a surplus of 10.4% of GDP this year after nearly a decade of budget deficits,” the Dubai-based Emirates NBD said in a note on Aug. 5.
Source: Forbes