Saudi Arabia is ahead of investment targets, country’s GDP surpasses SAR 4trn – Al Falih

Saudi Arabia is ahead of investment targets, country’s GDP surpasses SAR 4trn – Al Falih

Riyadh – Mubasher: The gross domestic product (GDP) of Saudi Arabia has jumped to more than SAR 4 trillion from SAR 2.60 trillion in nominal terms, Minister of Investment, Khalid Al Falih stated during the third Saudi Capital Market Forum in Riyadh.

Commenting on the Kingdom’s progress against its investment targets under Vision 2030, Al Falih said that Saudi Arabia’s standing among G20 countries has leapfrogged to hit number 16.

The minister further underpinned that the GDP leapfrog going forward will be investment, according to a press release.

Saudi Arabia’s National Investment Strategy has a target to grow capital formation in the Kingdom to 30%, according to Al Falih. He elaborated that the gross capital formation increased from less than 22% to nearly 28% by the third quarter (Q3) of 2023.

As for foreign direct investment (FDI) stocks, the Saudi investment minister said they have grown by 52% since Vision 2030 was started, with annual flows going from below 1% of GDP to more than 3%, noting that the target is 4% of GDP.

During the two-day event, which kicked off on 19 February 2024, Mohammed ElKuwaiz, Chairman of the Saudi Capital Market Authority (CMA), noted that the number of initial public offerings (IPO) in