Arab News: Saudi Arabia’s economy expanded 4.5 percent in 2025, driven by gains across oil, non-oil and government activities, as stronger crude output and steady domestic demand helped accelerate growth.
Data released by the General Authority for Statistics showed real gross domestic product growth reached 5 percent year on year in the fourth quarter, concluding a year in which oil activities increased 5.7 percent and non-oil sectors rose 4.9 percent. Government activities also contributed, rising by 0.9 percent compared to the previous year.
This comes as the Kingdom’s non-oil exports surged to their highest quarterly level on record, reaching $25.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, marking a 114 percent increase compared to the first quarter of 2017, when Saudi Arabia began publishing the data.
The rise in non-oil exports underscores progress under the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 program, which aims to diversify the economy by reducing reliance on crude oil revenues and increasing the contribution of non-oil exports to non-oil gross domestic product to 50 percent by the end of the decade.
“The main drivers of growth in real GDP in 2025 were non-oil activities, which contributed 2.8 percentage points and oil activities which contributed 1.4 percentage points. Government activities and net taxes on products contributed 0.1 and 0.2 percentage points, respectively,” GASTAT said.
The stronger 2025 reading comes after the International Monetary Fund in January raised Saudi Arabia’s 2026 growth forecast to 4.5 percent from 4 percent, while forecasting there had been 4.3 percent growth for 2025.
The World Bank, meanwhile, expects the Kingdom’s GDP to grow 4.3 percent this year after estimated expansion of 3.8 percent in 2025.
Within the non-oil sector, GASTAT data showed that several activities posted strong gains.
The wholesale and retail trade, restaurants, and hotels sector was the top performer, growing 6.2 percent. It was closely followed by financial services, insurance, and business services, which expanded 6.1 percent, while electricity, gas, and water activities also recorded a 6 percent increase.
Crude petroleum and natural gas extraction grew by 5.7 percent, while petroleum refining activity was even higher at 5.8 percent.
Crude petroleum and natural gas extraction remained the largest component of the economy, accounting for 17.1 percent of GDP at current prices, followed by government activities and the wholesale and retail trade sector.
The fourth quarter of 2025 marked a period of stronger growth, with the economy expanding 5 percent year on year. The increase was driven by a 10.8 percent annual rise in oil activities, while non-oil activities continued to grow at a solid pace of 4.3 percent.
On a seasonally adjusted quarter-on-quarter basis, the economy grew by 1.4 percent. The expansion was again led by non-oil activities, which grew by 1.7 percent, and oil activities, which rose by 1.8 percent. Government activities contracted slightly by 0.2 percent during the quarter.
In a breakdown of GDP by expenditure for the fourth quarter, exports were a major highlight, jumping 12.8 percent year on year. Private final consumption expenditure also provided solid support, increasing by 3.6 percent. Conversely, government final consumption expenditure declined by 8.5 percent compared to the same quarter in 2024.
The oil sector was the single largest contributor to the last quarter’s growth, adding 2.6 percentage points to the 5 percent total. Non-oil activities contributed a substantial 2.4 percentage points, while net taxes on products added 0.2 percentage points. Government activities had a marginal negative impact, detracting 0.2 percentage points from the overall growth rate.
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