SAUDI ARABIAN MARKET
Saudi Arabia Macroeconomic Developments
• Saudi Arabia’s non-oil private sector economy continued to improve in February, but the rate of growth eased amid slower expansion for output and new orders. IHS Markit’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) registered 53.9 points in February compared to 57.1 points in January. New business inflows and export sales continued to rise, though job numbers decreased for the third consecutive month.
• Saudi Arabia and OPEC+ partners agreed to extend crude oil supply cuts totaling approximately 7 million barrels per day (bpd), or 7 percent of global demand, through April. Saudi Arabia also announced it would extend its unilateral and voluntary 1 million bpd
supply cut through the end of April, offering further support to the energy market despite a recent rally in oil prices. Russia and Kazakhstan were granted an exemption, which would allow the nations to produce 130,000 and 20,000 additional bpd, respectively,
starting in April.
• Aggregate profits of Saudi banks declined 2 percent YoY to SAR5.2 billion ($1.4 billion), according to data from the Saudi Central Bank. The banking sector’s aggregate earnings were down 23 percent in 2020, totaling SAR38.7 billion ($10.3 billion). The data covers 11
listed Saudi and some foreign banks operating in the Kingdom.
