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Saudi Arabia — Market Overview

Middle East>Saudi Arabia

🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia trades as a blend of oil leverage, domestic liquidity, and state-directed investment, which means the market often reflects both crude dynamics and the execution pace of a massive domestic transformation agenda. The market is usually framed through oil revenues, credit and liquidity conditions, and whether Vision 2030 spending is broadening earnings beyond energy into banks, industrials, and consumer franchises.

Regional map

Key facts

Saudi Arabia at a glance

Capital

Riyadh

Currency

Saudi Riyal (﷼)

Primary exchange

Tadawul

Central bank

Saudi Central Bank

Region

Middle East

Time zone

Asia/Riyadh

Country dashboard

Why this market matters

This version combines a stylized country map with a switchable macro explorer built from official published history, using OECD primary datasets where available and World Bank annual series where coverage is otherwise incomplete.

Macro explorer

Switch variables, keep the country context

These country charts now use official OECD quarterly and monthly history where the feed is actually published, with government debt added from the World Bank when a stable public series exists. Variables without dependable republishable coverage are left out instead of being interpolated, so each page shows fewer lines only when the source coverage is genuinely thinner.

Real GDP growth

Quarterly real GDP growth from OECD Quarterly National Accounts.

-10.0%-5.0%0.0%5.0%10.0%201120122013201420152016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Click a year to zoom from that point.

Available variables

Real GDP growth

1.4%
1Y trend+39.5%
Avg growth+290.7%

What This Signals

GDP growth is published quarterly and annualized, so each point captures how fast real output was expanding or contracting versus the prior quarter at an annual rate. It matters because it is the broadest scorecard of domestic economic momentum and sets the backdrop for revenues, employment, and policy expectations. Versus a year ago, the series is higher by 39.5%, which points to an improving or firmer backdrop on this measure. Across the displayed window, the broader trend is still downward.

Trade and external position

Exports, services, and external balance

Instead of a generic macro-card wall, this section focuses on how the country earns demand from abroad, where its trade edge sits, and how the external balance is evolving.

Total trade Saudi Arabia﷼677.9B
Goods
Services
Goods
Services
Export﷼360.9B
﷼317.0BImport
External Balance2024
Exports +﷼360.9B
Imports -﷼317.0B
Balance+﷼43.9B
﷼360.9B
Total exports

The full export figure, combining goods and services in one line. It is the cleanest way to read how much external demand Saudi Arabia is capturing across both physical products and higher-value intangible flows.

﷼305.5B
Goods exports

This is the merchandise side of exports: industrial supplies, capital goods, autos, food, and other physical products. It matters because it reflects the health of manufacturing, energy, aerospace, and the broader global industrial cycle.

﷼62.8B
Services exports

This is the intangible side: finance, travel, licensing, business services, and IP-linked flows. It matters because it shows where Saudi Arabia is strongest in higher-margin, knowledge-intensive, and branded service activities.

Trade composition

What the country exports

Trade partners

Where the country trades

Commodity lens

Raw-material exposure

Trade openness54.7%

Trade in goods and services equaled 54.7% of GDP in 2024. This is a quick read on how externally exposed the economy is.

Services share of exports17.4%

Services represented 17.4% of total exports in the latest reading, which helps show whether the export mix leans more toward intangibles or merchandise.

Manufactures share15.9%

Manufactures accounted for 15.9% of merchandise exports in 2024.

Fuel share79.4%

Fuel exports accounted for 79.4% of merchandise exports in 2024, useful for reading commodity exposure.

Food share1.9%

Food exports accounted for 1.9% of merchandise exports in 2024, adding context on agricultural exposure.

What to watch

Reading framework

01

oil revenues

Saudi Arabia should first be read through oil revenues. When this regime shifts, local multiples and sector leadership usually shift with it.

02

domestic liquidity

The market is usually framed through oil revenues, credit and liquidity conditions, and whether Vision 2030 spending is broadening earnings beyond energy into banks, industrials, and consumer franchises. That makes domestic liquidity one of the most important signals for revising the country narrative.

03

Vision 2030 investment cycle

The final layer is vision 2030 investment cycle, because it determines whether the macro backdrop turns into sustainable earnings support for the TASI.

Other countries

Continue across Middle East

Each card opens the same country template with its own map, switchable macro variables, and benchmark view. This is the first linked network of country pages across the region.