Economy - overview:
Saudi Arabia has an oil-based economy with strong government controls over major economic activities. It possesses about one-fifth of the world's proven petroleum reserves, ranks as the largest exporter of petroleum, and plays a leading role in OPEC. The petroleum sector accounts for roughly 80% of budget revenues, 45% of GDP, and 90% of export earnings. Saudi Arabia is encouraging the growth of the private sector in order to diversify its economy and to employ more Saudi nationals. Diversification efforts are focusing on power generation, telecommunications, natural gas exploration, and petrochemical sectors. Almost 6 million foreign workers play an important role in the Saudi economy, particularly in the oil and service sectors, while Riyadh is struggling to reduce unemployment among its own nationals. Saudi officials are particularly focused on employing its large youth population, which generally lacks the education and technical skills the private sector needs. Riyadh has substantially boosted spending on job training and education, most recently with the opening of the King Abdallah University of Science and Technology - Saudi Arabia's first co-educational university. As part of its effort to attract foreign investment, Saudi Arabia acceded to the WTO in December 2005 after many years of negotiations. The government has begun establishing six "economic cities" in different regions of the country to promote foreign investment and plans to spend $373 billion between 2010 and 2014 on social development and infrastructure projects to advance Saudi Arabia's economic development.
GDP (purchasing power parity): GDP (official exchange rate): GDP - real growth rate: GDP - per capita (PPP): GDP - composition by sector: Labor force: Labor force - by occupation: Unemployment rate: Population below poverty line: Household income or consumption by percentage share: Investment (gross fixed): Budget: Taxes and other revenues: Budget surplus (+) or deficit (-): Public debt: Inflation rate (consumer prices): Central bank discount rate: Commercial bank prime lending rate: Stock of narrow money: Stock of broad money: Stock of domestic credit: Market value of publicly traded shares: Agriculture - products: Industries: Industrial production growth rate: Electricity - production: Electricity - consumption: Electricity - exports: Electricity - imports: Oil - production: Oil - consumption: Oil - exports: Oil - imports: Natural gas - production: Natural gas - consumption: Natural gas - exports: Natural gas - imports: Natural gas - proved reserves: Current account balance: Exports: Exports - commodities: Exports - partners: Imports: Imports - commodities: Imports - partners: Reserves of foreign exchange and gold: Debt - external: Stock of direct foreign investment - at home: Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad: Exchange rates:
NOTE: 1) The information regarding Saudi Arabia on this page is re-published from the 2012 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Saudi Arabia Economy 2012 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Saudi Arabia Economy 2012 should be addressed to the CIA.
$676.7 billion (2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 24
note: data are in 2011 US dollars
[see also: GDP country ranks ]
$560.3 billion (2011 est.)
[see also: GDP (official exchange rate) country ranks ]
6.5% (2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 33
[see also: GDP - real growth rate country ranks ]
$24,000 (2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 55
note: data are in 2011 US dollars
[see also: GDP - per capita country ranks ]
agriculture: 2.1%
[see also: GDP - composition by sector - agriculture country ranks ]
industry: 67.6%
[see also: GDP - composition by sector - industry country ranks ]
services: 30.4% (2011 est.)
[see also: GDP - composition by sector - services country ranks ]
7.63 million
country comparison to the world: 61
note: about 80% of the labor force is non-national (2011 est.)
[see also: Labor force country ranks ]
agriculture: 6.7%
[see also: Labor force - by occupation - agriculture country ranks ]
industry: 21.4%
[see also: Labor force - by occupation - industry country ranks ]
services: 71.9% (2005 est.)
[see also: Labor force - by occupation - services country ranks ]
10.9% (2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 117
note: data are for Saudi males only (local bank estimates; some estimates range as high as 25%)
[see also: Unemployment rate country ranks ]
NA%
[see also: Population below poverty line country ranks ]
lowest 10%: NA%
[see also: Household income or consumption by percentage share - lowest 10% country ranks ]
highest 10%: NA%
[see also: Household income or consumption by percentage share - highest 10% country ranks ]
19.2% of GDP (2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 130
[see also: Investment (gross fixed) country ranks ]
revenues: $293.1 billion
[see also: Budget revenues country ranks ]
expenditures: $210.6 billion (2011 est.)
[see also: Budget expenditures country ranks ]
52.3% of GDP (2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 14
[see also: Taxes and other revenues country ranks ]
14.7% of GDP (2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 5
[see also: Budget surplus (+) or deficit (-) country ranks ]
9.4% of GDP (2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 122
[see also: Public debt country ranks ]
5% (2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 117
[see also: Inflation rate (consumer prices) country ranks ]
2.5% (31 December 2008)
[see also: Central bank discount rate country ranks ]
7.2% (31 December 2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 139
[see also: Commercial bank prime lending rate country ranks ]
$205.9 billion (31 December 2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 18
[see also: Stock of narrow money country ranks ]
$335.7 billion (31 December 2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 29
[see also: Stock of broad money country ranks ]
$2.96 billion (31 December 2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 125
[see also: Stock of domestic credit country ranks ]
$353.4 billion (31 December 2010)
country comparison to the world: 23
[see also: Market value of publicly traded shares country ranks ]
wheat, barley, tomatoes, melons, dates, citrus; mutton, chickens, eggs, milk
crude oil production, petroleum refining, basic petrochemicals, ammonia, industrial gases, sodium hydroxide (caustic soda), cement, fertilizer, plastics, metals, commercial ship repair, commercial aircraft repair, construction
7.7% (2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 28
[see also: Industrial production growth rate country ranks ]
194.4 billion kWh (2009 est.)
country comparison to the world: 20
[see also: Electricity - production country ranks ]
174.5 billion kWh (2008 est.)
country comparison to the world: 20
[see also: Electricity - consumption country ranks ]
0 kWh (2009 est.)
[see also: Electricity - exports country ranks ]
0 kWh (2009 est.)
[see also: Electricity - imports country ranks ]
10.52 million bbl/day (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 1
[see also: Oil - production country ranks ]
2.643 million bbl/day (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 7
[see also: Oil - consumption country ranks ]
7.635 million bbl/day (2009 est.)
country comparison to the world: 1
[see also: Oil - exports country ranks ]
83,150 bbl/day (2009 est.)
country comparison to the world: 71
[see also: Oil - imports country ranks ]
83.94 billion cu m (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 11
[see also: Natural gas - production country ranks ]
83.94 billion cu m (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 9
[see also: Natural gas - consumption country ranks ]
0 cu m (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 170
[see also: Natural gas - exports country ranks ]
0 cu m (2010 est.)
country comparison to the world: 120
[see also: Natural gas - imports country ranks ]
7.807 trillion cu m (1 January 2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 4
[see also: Natural gas - proved reserves country ranks ]
$151.4 billion (2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 2
[see also: Current account balance country ranks ]
$350.7 billion (2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 15
[see also: Exports country ranks ]
petroleum and petroleum products 90%
Japan 14.3%, China 13.1%, US 13%, South Korea 8.8%, India 8.3%, Singapore 4.5% (2010)
$106.5 billion (2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 33
[see also: Imports country ranks ]
machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, chemicals, motor vehicles, textiles
US 12.4%, China 11.1%, Germany 7.1%, Japan 6.9%, France 6.1%, India 4.7%, South Korea 4.2% (2010)
$556.2 billion (31 December 2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 3
[see also: Reserves of foreign exchange and gold country ranks ]
$101 billion (31 December 2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 41
[see also: Debt - external country ranks ]
$214.7 billion (31 December 2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 22
[see also: Stock of direct foreign investment - at home country ranks ]
$18.16 billion (31 December 2011 est.)
country comparison to the world: 47
[see also: Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad country ranks ]
Saudi riyals (SAR) per US dollar -
2) The rank that you see is the CIA reported rank, which may habe the following issues:
a) They assign increasing rank number, alphabetically for countries with the same value of the ranked item, whereas we assign them the same rank.
b) The CIA sometimes assignes counterintuitive ranks. For example, it assigns unemployment rates in increasing order, whereas we rank them in decreasing order
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This page was last modified 07-Mar-12