Saudi Arabia Macroeconomic Developments
- The International Monetary Fund lowered its 2024 forecast for economic growth in Saudi Arabia to 2.7 percent, projecting a slower recovery amid lower oil production, but said non-oil growth this year was expected to remain “robust.”
- Saudi Arabia’s sukuk and bond issuances rose 2.8 percent YoY in value by the end of the fourth quarter of 2023, reaching about SAR758.8 billion ($202.3 billion), data issued by Tadawul showed. Saudi investors held approximately 99 percent of the listed holdings, with a traded value of SAR5.44 billion ($1.45 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2023, while Gulf Cooperation Council investors contributed 0.2 percent with a traded value of SAR3.96 billion ($1.1 billion).
- Saudi Arabia’s non-oil activities experienced a growth of 4.6 percent in 2023. However, the country’s real gross domestic product saw a decline of 0.9 percent in 2023 YoY, according to the General Authority for Statistics (GAStat).
