KSA Business: Saudi real GDP growth to hit over 7pc in 2022 on high oil – Gulf Digital News

KSA Business: Saudi real GDP growth to hit over 7pc in 2022 on high oil – Gulf Digital News

Saudi Arabia is set to become one of the world's fastest-growing large economies in 2022 with a real GDP growth in excess of 7%. The current account surplus will hit 13.7% of GDP in 2022, according to top ratings agency S&P Global.

The growth was mainly driven by high oil prices, which helped the kingdom's strong recovery in 2022,

but growth will slow next year because of supply cuts agreed under OPEC+.

S&P said apart from the high oil prices, increased oil production and robust non-oil momentum also helped grow the economy this year.

The GDP increased for the sixth consecutive quarter, growing 8.6% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2022, stated the report citing the flash estimates published by General Authority for Statistics.

"We estimate a return to fiscal surpluses at 6.3% of GDP in 2022 and 3.5% in 2023. With the Brent oil price expected to average about $100/bbl in 2022 and remain elevated through 2023, we expect the current account to record significant surpluses this year and next," said S&P in its review.

The current account surplus could reach a very large surplus of 13.7% of GDP this year, the highest since 2013 and later it could moderate to 5.9% on average over