By Innovation-sa on January 7, 2019 in News
The Saudi Arabian economy recorded it’s fastest growth since early 2016 during the third quarter of 2018. The country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew 2.5 percent from a year earlier to SR 653.7 billion, accelerating from the second quarter’s GDP growth of 1.6 percent.
The rise in GDP is attributed to a strong performance by the oil sector which expanded by 3.7 percent from a year ago in Q3, after 1.3 percent in Q2.
However, the Kingdom’s non-oil sector, the key to its job creation and diversification dreams showed sluggish growth with a drop to 2.1 percent from 2.4 percent.
Government officials have predicted a gradual boost of the non-oil sector in the coming year and bank lending to private sector has risen by 2.3 percent in comparison to last year, the fastest since 2016.
The data published by the statistics agency suggests a recovery of the Saudi economy after it has been hardly hit in recent years by low oil prices and state austerity measures to curb a huge budget deficit.
Gulf Business
https://gulfbusiness.com/saudis-economy-grows-fastest-rate-since-early-2016-q3/