Saudi Arabia’s FDI hit decade-high last year on Aramco deal

Saudi Arabia’s foreign direct investment reached the highest level in more than a decade last year, mainly due to an oil pipeline deal in the second quarter.

Foreign direct investment in 2021 totalled $19.3bn, the most since 2010, according to data published by the Saudi central bank on Monday. The bulk of that was from state oil company Saudi Aramco selling a $12.4bn stake in an oil pipelines entity to investors led by EIG Global Energy Partners. However even without that deal, FDI would have been at its highest level since 2016.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plan to diversify the kingdom’s oil-dependent economy seeks to secure more foreign investment. A new national investment strategy last year set an FDI target of more than $100bn annually by 2030, along with a target of increasing its contribution to gross domestic product to 5.7 per cent.

Meeting both of those goals would require more than doubling the size of the economy over the next eight years.