The world’s largest energy exporter, Saudi Arabia, has experienced a significant decline in its total exports, encompassing both oil and non-oil exports, according to media reports.
Saudi Arabia has witnessed a 25% year-on-year decrease, with total exports amounting to $28 billion compared to $37 billion in the same period last year, online portal Zawya said in a report.
As per analysts, the decline in exports is primarily attributed to the softening of energy prices and lower demand in Europe and the US due to a combined effect of hardening of interest rates and ongoing economic turmoil.
Specifically, oil exports faced a decline of 26% or 30 billion riyals, dropping from 113.1 billion riyals in March 2022 to 83.1 billion riyals in March 2023, the report quoted figures from the General Authority for Statistics.
Consequently, the proportion of oil exports in the overall export mix decreased from 79.6% to 78.3% during this period.
In contrast, data from the Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI) indicated a slight 1% increase in Saudi crude oil exports in March, reaching 7.52 million barrels per day (bpd) compared to 7.46 million bpd in February, the report said.
As for non-oil exports, including re-exports, they witnessed a YoY decline of 21%, amounting to $6.7 billion in March 2023 compared to $7.7 billion riyals in March 2022. However, on a month-on-month basis, non-oil exports demonstrated a modest increase of 7.2% or 1.5 billion riyals.
Simultaneously, merchandise imports experienced a notable rise of 10% or $1.46 billion in March 2023, totaling $16.54 billion compared to the same period the previous year. Consequently, the country achieved a positive trade balance of $11.74 billion.