The economy of Saudi Arabia is largely dependent on the oil reserves in the country. The country derives 75% of its revenues from the petroleum sector.

(Source: opec.org)

Gross domestic product (GDP)

Estimated GDP at current prices for the year 2010 is SAR 1,626.97 billion, an increase of 15.46% over 2009.

In 2009, the GDP at current prices was SAR 1409.1 billion, a decrease of 21.10% over 2008. Oil sector is the major contributor to the country’s GDP. The oil sector accounted for 28.1% of the GDP in 2009 as compared to 30.3% in 2008.

(Source: Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency)

Wholesale Price Index

(Source: Central Department of Statistics and Information,Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency)

Interest rates

The interest rate on domestic currency deposits in 2009 for 3 months was 0.6% as compared to 2.9% in 2008. The interest rates in 2009 were reduced to deflect a slowdown in economic growth as a result of global financial crisis.

In Q3 2010,

·         The official repo rate was 2.0% and has been constant since 2009

·         The reverse repo rate was 0.250% and has been constant since Q2 2009

·         The Saudi interbank rate was 0.722%

Average Period	ORR	RRR	Monthly average 3M SIBOR	Treasury Bills
				1 week	4 weeks	13 weeks	26 weeks	52 weeks
2010 Q3	2.0	0.25	0.72	0.14	0.74	0.36	0.44	0.54
2010 Q2	2.0	0.25	0.73	0.13	0.18	0.34	0.42	0.52
2010 Q1	2.0	0.25	0.76	0.14	0.19	0.40	0.51	0.68
2009	2.5	1.5	0.91	0.22	0.29	0.46	0.58	0.76
2008	2.5	1.5	3.29	2.52	2.96	3.19	3.38	3.55
2007	5.5	4.0	4.91	4.75	4.76	4.80	4.83	4.85

 

(Source: Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency)

Money supply (currency in circulation)

Money supply in Saudi Arabia includes the components – M1, M2 and M3.

M1 includes currency outside banks and demand deposits.

M2 consists of M1 along with time and saving deposits.

M3 refers to M1 and M2 along with other quasi monetary deposits. Other Quasi deposits comprises of residents foreign currency deposits, marginal deposits for LC’s, outstanding remittances and banks repo transactions with private parties.

Money supply  (SAR million)
	M1	M2	M3
Q3 2010	591,279	889.453	1,050,936
Q2 2010	576,928	880,975	1,035,582
Q1 2010	542,010	855,717	1,010,511
2009	521,558	844,935	1,028,944
2008	425,494	793,118	929,125
2007	383,557	666,616	789,755
2006	312,742	538,769	660,583
2005	283,539	448,805	553,675

(Source: Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency)

Government expenditure

The spending by the Saudi government increased by 5.12% from 2009 to 2010 and is expected to decrease by 7.42% for the year 2011.

 

Exchange rate

The exchange rate of US dollar against Saudi Riyal in Q3 of 2010 was recorded as 3.75. This rate has been constant since 2005.

Exchange rates of foreign currencies against SAR
	Q3 2010	Q2 2010	Q1 2010	2009	2008	2007	2006	2005
US Dollar	3.7500	3.7500	3.7500	3.7500	3.7500	3.7500	3.7500	3.7500
Euro	5.1180	4.6016	5.0546	5.4022	5.218	5.5095	4.9388	4.4239

 

(Source: Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency)

Government finances

Total revenue

The actual governmental revenue in 2010 was recorded to be SAR 735 billion, an increase of 44.17% from 2009. The estimated revenue for year 2011 is SAR 540 billion. The revenues from oil sector in 2009 accounted for SAR 434,420 million, a decrease of 55.8% from 2008 oil revenues of SAR 983,369 million.

 

(Source: Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, Ministry of Finance)

Current surplus/deficit

According to preliminary estimates, the current account is estimated to be a surplus of SAR 260.9 billion in 2010 as compared to SAR 78.6 billion in 2009.

(Source: Ministry of Finance)

Aid to developing countries

Saudi Arabia provides loans and aids to the developing countries. From 1991 to 2009, total aid and loans disbursed amounted to SAR 117.6 billion. The contribution to associations and organisations amounted to SAR 10.8 billion and aids provided through multilateral grants amounted to SAR 7.4 billion.

(Source: Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency)

Balance of Payments

Since 2000, the current account surplus has prevailed in the country. In 2009, the current account surplus was recorded as SAR 78579.8 billion, a decrease of 84.16% from 2008.

Saudi Arabia Balance of Payments (SAR million)
Year	Trade in goods and services	Total income	Current transfers	Capital and Financial account	Current balance
Q1 2010 E	92,725.0	10,171.8	-29,762.7	-36,334.7	73,134.1
2009	149,953.5	32,398.5	-103,772.2	149,248.5	78,579.8
2008	548,134.1	34,368.3	-82,694.1	-383,610.9	496,208.3
2007	389,884.8	23,970.1	-63,869.5	-291,446.0	349,985.3
2006	419,484.4	14,361.8	-62,843.5	-294,003.1	371,002.7

 

(Source: Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency)

In 2009, the total labour force in Saudi Arabia was 8.61 million. Males constitute 85.1% of the total labour force and female workers account for 14.9%.

In 2009, non-Saudis accounted for 52.9% of the total employed population. Of the total employed population in 2009, 86.8% were males and 13.2% were females.

(Source: Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency)

Labour force by economic activity

In 2009, the building and construction sector accounted for 41.7% of the total number of workers, followed by wholesale and retail trade sector with 22.6 %.

(Source: Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency)

Unemployment

The unemployment rate is estimated at 10% in 2010. The total unemployment rate in 2009 was 5.4%, however, the unemployment rate of Saudis in the same period was 10.5%. The unemployment rate was higher for Saudi females at 28.4%, whereas the male unemployment for male Saudis was 6.9%.

Education

The literacy rate for population aged above 15 years of age in 2008 was estimated at 85.5%, the literacy rate for males was 89.5% and 80.2% for females. The literacy rate for youth in the age group 15 – 24 years was 97.3% in 2008, 98.4% for males and 96.2% for females.

(Source: UNESCO)

In Saudi Arabia the education system has three levels

• Preschool Level
• Elementary, Intermediate & Secondary Level
• Higher Education Level

The Preschool level education includes kindergartens and nursery schools before the age of six. The Elementary, Intermediate & Secondary level is compulsory for all citizens and the duration is six years for primary school, and three years each of intermediate and high school. The Higher Education level comprises of university and college study levels.

The Ministry of Higher Education supervises the higher education institutions and sublevels.

In 2009, the total number of students at primary, intermediate and secondary levels was recorded at 6.1 million.

(Source: Ministry of Higher Education, Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency)

Education resources

As of 2009, the country had a total of 26,268 schools. The number of technological colleges and industrial vocational institutes registered in the same year were 35 and 62 respectively.

Healthcare resources

Health resource Indicators at the end of 2008 are given below:

(Source: Ministry of Health)

At the end of 2009, the government had provided loans worth SAR 7.2 billion to support private education and health services in the country.

(Source: Saudi Arabia Monetary Agency)

Mass public transit

The mass public transport in the country includes roads (buses and cabs) and railways.

(Source: Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency)

Roadways

The total length of the road network in Saudi Arabia at the end of 2009 was about 55,000 kilometres.

(Source: Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency)

Ports

The country has eight ports. The ports of Jubail and Yanbu are the busiest ports in the country.

(Source: Ministry of Transportation)

Air transport

The air transport carries the highest number of passengers in the country. Through International airports there was arrival and departure of 28.7 million people.

Airports

Saudi Arabia has more than 40 airports. International airports in the country are located at Dammam, Jeddah, Riyadh and Madinah. Other airports including regional and domestic airports include:

(Source: aircraft-charter-world)

Telecommunications networks

The total number of internet users in the country at the end of the third quarter of 2010 was 11.2 million as compared to 10.3 million at the end of 2009. The internet penetration was 41% of the total population in the country.

(Source:Ministry of Communications and Information Technology)

At the end of the first three quarters of 2010, the total broadband subscriptions in the country were 3.2 million. The broadband penetration was 12.2% of the country’s population.

The number of fixed telephone lines at the end of the third quarter of 2010 was 4.3 million. A majority of the fixed lines, about 3.2 million were residential subscribers. Mobile subscriptions at the end of the third quarter were recorded at 49 million. Of the total subscriptions, 86% were prepaid connections.