Saudi Arabia trade surplus grows to $12bn — GASTAT

Overall trade levels in Saudi Arabia remain strong as the country’s General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) reported a surplus for September 2023 of SAR 44bn ($11.73bn).

According to the statistics body, there were SAR 104bn in merchandise exports for that month, while there were SAR 60bn in imports. Compared August, this signals a growing trade surplus, as imports in that month amounted to SAR 70bn, while exports remaind the same at SAR 104bn (leading to a SAR 30bn trade surplus).

“Overall merchandise exports decreased by 17.1% in September 2023, compared to September 2022. The value of exports amounted to SAR 103.8bn in September 2023, down from SAR 125.3bn in September 2022. This decrease originated mainly from oil exports, which fell by SAR 17.2bn or 17.1% in the same period, decreasing to SAR 83.1bn from SAR 100.3bn in September 2022,” said GASTAT in its latest trade report released Thursday.

Other notable aspects of the latest report included that the share of oil exports in total exports increased from 80.0% in September 2022 to 80.1% in September 2023. Non-oil exports (including re-exports) fell by 17.2%, compared to September 2022, decreasing to SAR 20.7bn from SAR 25.0bn in September 2022.

In terms of ports, Jeddah Islamic Sea Port recorded a value of SAR 14.5bn of imports for the month, corresponding to 24.1% of the total in September 2023. The other major ports of entry for imports were King Abdulaziz Sea Port in Dammam (19.6%), King Khalid Int Airport in Riyadh (11.0%), Ras Tanura Sea Port (6.6%), and King Fahad Int Airport in Dammam (6.4%). Those five ports together accounted for 67.8% of the total merchandise imports of Saudi Arabia.