CAIRO: Saudi economy grew in the third quarter of 2021 by the fastest pace since 2012 as oil prices reached multi-year highs.
The Kingdom’s GDP grew at an annual rate of 6.8 percent in third quarter compared to negative growth of 4.5 percent a year ago, according to flash estimates by the General Authority of Statistics (GASTAT).
Oil activities went up by an annual rate of 9 percent in Q3 2021, following a drop by 7 percent in the previous quarter. This was the first expansion in oil output since the first quarter of 2019.
Rising world demand for oil in 2021 helped fuel this increase, GASTAT explained.
Meanwhile, growth in non-oil activities eased to 6.2 percent in this year’s third quarter, following a higher 11.1 percent expansion in the previous quarter.
In addition, output of government activities went up by 2.7 percent compared to 0.4 percent in the second quarter.
On a quarterly basis, the Saudi economy grew by 5.8 percent in Q3, accelerating significantly from the previous quarter’s 1.1 percent.
This was fuelled, again, by a rapidly increasing oil output, which expanded by a quarterly rate of 12.9 percent.