RIYADH/DUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s economy expanded at an annual rate of 3.1 percent in the third quarter, only half as fast as it grew a year ago, according to data released yesterday.
The annual inflation-adjusted growth rate slowed to 2.1 percent during the first quarter in Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil producer. The growth rate rose to 2.7 percent in the second quarter, according to the Central Statistics Office, and continued to rise as output increased in the third quarter.
“Oil is the one pushing the headline numbers, but there is an evident moderation in the non-oil sector,” said John Sfakianakis, chief investment strategist at Masic, a Saudi investment company.
The $711bn Saudi economy, which has been pegging its currency, the riyal, to the US dollar for decades, grew 5.7 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2012 and 5.1 percent in all of last year. Quarter-on-quarter, Saudi real GDP grew 1.1 percent in July-September 2013, reversing the same decline in the previous quarter, according to a Reuters calculation based on the official data.
Growth in the oil sector, which accounts for nearly half of the economy, was 3.1 percent year-on-year in July-September, after a 3.7 percent drop in the second quarter. However, growth in the Saudi non-oil private sector eased to 3.3 percent in the third quarter from 4.2 percent in April-June and 4.3 percent a year earlier.
Growth in transport and storage slowed to 3.2 percent from 6.8 percent a year earlier. In the wholesale, retail, hotels and restaurants sector, growth slowed to 2.7 percent from 7.1 percent a year ago. Reuters
