Saudi Foreign Trade Surges $173 Billion in Growth During One Year

Saudi Minister of Commerce Dr. Majid Al-Qasabi on Thursday unveiled several positive outcomes that the Kingdom has achieved as a result of economic reforms, the most prominent of which is the growth of its foreign trade during the past year by a value of $173 billion.

Al-Qasabi’s remarks were made during his participation in the meeting of trade and investment ministers of the G20, held in the Indian city of Jaipur.

He affirmed that Saudi Arabia’s “Vision 2030” has launched key initiatives to enhance the regional and international integration of the Saudi economy.

Al-Qasabi stated that the volume of non-oil exports in the past year exceeded $28.7 billion, marking a growth rate of 40% for the period from 2018 to 2022.

He also revealed that the number of small and medium-sized enterprises in the country has reached 1.2 million establishments, and the sector provides 80% of the jobs in the labor market.

He added that the Saudi Export and Import Bank has provided loans exceeding $4.6 billion. At the same time, he disclosed a yearly growth in e-commerce from 2016 to 2022 by about 33%.

Minister Al-Qasabi highlighted Saudi Arabia’s commitment to continue trade cooperation and integration to support global economic prosperity.

The goal is to reach the second position among the G20 in digital competitiveness according to the “Digital Riser 2021” report, and the sixth among 50 emerging countries in the “Agility” index for the year 2022.

He pointed out that Saudi Arabia ranked 17th out of 64 countries in the annual Global Competitiveness Report for the current year, and 38th out of 138 in the Logistics Performance Index for the year 2023.