COUNTRY REPORT: KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA
Saudi Arabia’s burgeoning economy to peak over US$ one trillion in 2022—IMF Forecast Under Saudi Vision 2030, the Kingdom’s Transport and Logistics sectors have made several inroads and key accomplishments during the past few year With stable growth in non-oil sectors and the spike in oil prices, Saudi Arabia managed to blunt off the effects of the pandemic. The country reported a GDP of about US$ 833 billion in 2021. Economic growth of the country is predicted to rise by 6.8 to 7 percent in 2022 due to higher oil prices, before returning to a normal growth rate 3.8 to 4 percent in 2023, affirms a recent Frost & Sullivan Report.
TJ Sivan, Senior Consultant, Supply Chain & Logistics Practice, Frost & Sullivan
34 JUNE 2022
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he financial growth metrics are looking good for Saudi Arabia on all counts. According to recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts, the size of the Kingdom’s economy will exceed US$1 trillion in 2022, for the first time in its history, it was widely reported in the regional and international media. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised its 2022 forecast for Saudi Arabia, suggesting that the Kingdom’s economy is set to grow by more than two-fold amid a record-high surge in oil prices. The IMF’s latest report entitled ‘World Economic Outlook: War sets back the global recovery,’ stated that it revised its 2022 economic forecast for Saudi Arabia, anticipating a 2.8 percent growth, “reflecting higher oil productions in line with the OPEC+ agreement, reinforced by strong-than-anticipated growth in the non-oil sector.” The Fund’s baseline fiscal projections are primarily based on its understanding of government policies as outlined in the 2022 budget, the report stated, adding that export oil revenues are based on World Economic Outlook baseline oil price assumptions and their understanding of current oil policy under the OPEC+ agreement. Their monetary projections for the Kingdom were based on the continuation of the exchange rate peg to the US dollar currency, the report added. Saudi Arabia’s economy grew by 9.6 percent in the first quarter of 2022, compared to a year earlier, according to flash government estimates in early May 2002, as a recovery in the oil sector drove the strongest growth in more than a decade. During the first quarter, oil activity in
