Riyadh (Al-Ittihad) The Saudi economy grew in 2021 at the fastest pace in six years, with economic activities relatively recovering from the “Covid 19” crisis, especially the activities of the non-oil sector. According to data from the Saudi General Authority for Statistics, the Kingdom’s gross domestic product rose 3.3% last year, Compared to a contraction of 4.1% in 2020, driven by the growth of non-oil activities by 6.6%.
The growth achieved in 2021 was higher than the estimates of the Saudi government, which expected the economy to grow by 2.9%, as well as higher than the estimates of the International Monetary Fund, which predicted a real GDP growth of 2.4% in 2021, with growth to double to 4.8% in 2022.
Regarding the indicators of the last quarter of last year; The Kingdom’s real GDP grew by 6.8% compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, as a result of the remarkable growth in the oil sector’s activities, after the strong rise in oil prices.
Standard & Poor’s expected that the average growth of the Saudi economy will reach 2.4% between 2021 and 2024, mainly due to high oil prices, the continuous easing of production cuts by the “OPEC Plus” alliance, and the acceleration of the vaccination campaign with anti-virus vaccines. Corona.
Goldman Sachs raised its forecast for Saudi GDP growth in 2021 to 4.5%, compared to its previous forecast of 2.5%, and the bank sees that the Kingdom’s economy will grow by 7% in 2022, followed by a growth rate of 1.2% for 2023 and 2024.
The Egyptian investment bank “Beltone” believes that the Saudi economy will witness this year the highest economic growth in 9 years at 4.9%, thanks to the increase in oil production and the strong improvement of the non-oil sector.
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