The Saudi Statistics Authority revealed, in a statement yesterday, that the Kingdom’s gross domestic product at current prices amounted to 2974 billion riyals last year, achieving an increase of 0.8% over the previous year, and indicated that oil and natural gas activities contributed by 27.4% of the gross national product, while growth in the non-oil sector exceeded expectations for achieving an increase of 3.3% as a result of growth in the private sector by 3.8%.
The statement indicated that the growth achieved during the past year, is mainly due to the growth achieved in the activities of wholesale and retail trade, restaurants and hotels by 6.3%, insurance and business services activities by 8% and transport, storage and communications activities by 5.6%.
The oil sector achieved a decline of 3.6% in 2019, and the «Statistics» attributed the reason for the decline in growth to achieving economic activities negative growth, as electricity, gas and water activities recorded the lowest growth rate with a decrease of 4%, followed by oil and natural gas activities with a decrease of 3.7%, then Petroleum refining activity, with a decrease of 3.2%, and the activities of manufacturing industries, with the exception of oil refining, achieved.
