Weekly Market Brief – 2/25/2022

Saudi Arabia Macroeconomic Developments

• Saudi Arabia’s total exports fell by 1.6 percent MoM (+62.6 percent YoY) during December to reach SAR106.3 billion ($28.3 billion) while imports rose 5.8 percent MoM (+17.7 percent YoY) and totaled SAR53.5 billion ($14.3 billion). The Kingdom’s trade balance totaled SAR52.7 billion ($14 billion) at the end of December, rising 166 percent YoY.

• Non-oil exports increased by 0.2 percent MoM (+43.4 percent YoY) in December to SAR23 billion ($6.1 billion) excluding re-exports of SAR6.31 billion ($1.68 billion), making it the highest number of non-oil exports on record. Meanwhile, oil exports dropped 5.3 percent MoM (+65.9 percent YoY) to a total of SAR77 billion ($20.5 billion) in the final month of the year.

• Top non-oil exports were ‘Products of the Chemical or Allied Industries’ (32 percent of non-oil exports), which totaled SAR4.5 billion ($1.2 billion), and ‘Plastics and Rubber and Articles Thereof’ (29 percent of total), which totaled SAR1.9 billion ($507 million). The segments rose 93 percent and 29 percent from last year’s levels, respectively.