Saudi Arabia’s economy expanded 11.8% in the second quarter, maintaining the fastest pace of growth since 2011 buoyed by higher oil prices and production, Bloomberg reported.
Non-oil gross domestic product – the engine of job creation – gained 5.4% while the oil economy grew 23.1% compared to last year, according to preliminary estimates released by the General Authority for Statistics.
The increase in energy prices together with the war in Ukraine, which altered the global patterns on trade, production and consumption, have contributed to this record GDP growth. Oil is trading more than 40% higher than at the start of the year, and surged further immediately after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Saudi Arabia has seen revenue soar on the back of $100 oil and rising production. Oil gross domestic product is expected to grow 19% this year, Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Saudi Arabia’s citizen unemployment rate also fell to the lowest since 2008 as economic growth surged on the back of higher oil revenue.
