Saudi Arabia Economic Statistics

Silvia Andreoletti

Silvia is an intern at Trade Finance Global. She is currently finishing her BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at New College, Oxford, with a focus on financial markets, game theory, and international relations.

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Exporting to Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is the largest economy in the Middle East and the richest Arab country. Saudi Arabia’s main imports are machinery and vehicles, with Japan as the top source for the latter and China, the US, and the UAE as other import sources. It has a sizable and steady trade surplus, thanks in large part to its fuel exports; however, growth has been slowly decreasing due to oil production cuts in recent years. 

The government has been focused on fostering non-oil development and has enacted a number of business-friendly measures as a result, including a new set of laws that protect investors’ rights and reduce the cost of doing business. The Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, has been deploying capital to finance infrastructure megaprojects and to stimulate private sector investment. Non-oil growth is projected to be high this year, driven by the tourism, healthcare, and insurance sectors. However, measures to encourage diversification may hurt importers: companies are strongly encouraged and in some areas even required to purchase goods and services from domestic suppliers, and the government has set a goal for at least half of all defence materials used by the Saudi army to be produced locally by 2030. 

The country’s official constitution is the Quran, and all government business must be Shari’a compliant. All banking, insurance and financial products must therefore be compatible with Islamic law. The absolute value of Sharia principles means foreign judgments or legal precedence can easily be overruled. Saudi Arabian government agencies are very rarely allowed to agree to international arbitration, and enforcement of foreign arbitration awards can also prove difficult. However, reforms passed in 2023 have made legal proceedings smoother and more consistent with international law.

Exporting to Saudi Arabia: What is trade finance?

Saudi Arabia sits as the fifth largest export economy in the world and is the forty-second most complex economy according to the Economic Complexity Index (ECI). It is the world’s main producer and exporter of petroleum products, and acts as the second largest oil producer after Russia. On average, Saudi Arabia exports around $600B of goods and imports around $150B, which results in a positive trade balance of around $450B. It is estimated that the GDP of Saudi Arabia is around $750B with a GDP per capita of around $50k.

When looking at products that are exported, the main items are crude petroleum, (around $520B), refined petroleum ($30B) and petroleum gas (around $12B) and propylene polymers (around $11B). The main countries of export are Asia (almost $200B), North and Central America ($54B), China ($48B), the United States (around $45B) and Japan (over $40B).

In terms of geography, Saudi Arabia borders the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Yemen by land and Egypt, Eritrea, Bahrain, Sudan and Iran by sea.

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