Saudi Arabia is undergoing a period of sweeping social transformation and economic diversification underpinned by Vision 2030. This is creating a fertile environment for private businesses to expand into emerging market segments to meet rapidly rising demand from the Kingdom’s relatively young and aspirational consumer class, particularly in areas such as entertainment, hospitality, sport…
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is experiencing a period of sustained economic growth, outperforming other G20 nations in 2022. This expansion is attributed to higher global energy prices, resulting in a fiscal surplus and supporting diversification efforts and the non-oil sector.
With increasing oil and gas prices and an expanding non-oil sector, Saudi Arabia has been logging record trade surpluses in recent years, while securing government revenue for future investment. The Kingdom is expected to be among the fastest-growing economies in the G20 in 2022 – and was on track to fulfil that forecast by the middle of the year. Indeed, in the first three months of 2022 G
Restrictions on movement and trade as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic have led to a significant shift in consumer behaviour in Saudi Arabia, with locals increasingly turning to digital channels. Worldwide, cases of Covid-19 have risen to 859,000 and 42,000 deaths have been attributedto the virus as of the morning of April 1. However, Saudi Arabia has seen relativelyfew infections,…
Since its establishment in September 1932, the Kingdom has poured its considerable financial resources into a series of large-scale economic development, diversification and modernisation initiatives. Saudi Arabia has attracted international attention for the momentum of its socio-economic transformation, taking place under the auspices of the Vision 2030 development blueprint. Firming oil prices
Changing labour market trends, in part a result of efforts to boost the number of domestic citizens in the workforce, are shifting Saudi Arabia’s economy and the retail sector in particular. More than 264,000 expatriates left the Saudi labour market in the third quarter of last year, according to data released by the General Organisation for Social Insurance on March 3, taking the total number…
Key initiatives include a privatisation programme which would see the divestment of a number of state-owned giants, such as the partial listing of Aramco, the creation of the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund and the increased participation of women in the job market. The Kingdom has played a key role too on the international stage in 2017, becoming the first country to host President Trump,
While Saudi Arabia’s economy remains dominated by its hydrocarbons sector, several other sectors have emerged in recent years as key propellors of economic growth. The Kingdom’s financial services industries have continued to expand steadily despite the liquidity challenges posed by falling oil prices. Trade and investment are being treated as key priorities as the government looks to negotiat
In mid-July 2016 YouGov, a UK-based market research firm, released the results of its latest survey of the most popular brands in Saudi Arabia. At the top of the firm’s 2016 Mid-Year BrandIndex BestBrand Rankings was Almarai, a Riyadh-based food and beverages producer that bills itself as the world’s largest vertically integrated dairy company. In the past few years Almarai has moved steadily up…
