The recent trends of the national economy of Saudi Arabia
SHERAZUR RAHMAN##
At the international level, Saudi Arabia is now at the top growing economic country in the world. Mainly under the prudent leadership of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the national economy and foreign trade have grown at an incredible pace in recent years. Especially due to the strong position of the country’s state-owned oil and gas production and export company, ‘ARAMCO’, Saudi Arabia has emerged into a good position today.
According to the updated information for September provided by the global business magazine Forbes, the market capital value of Saudi Arabia’s oil and gas production company ‘ARAMCO’ ranks third in the world in the current year 2023. The market capital value of ‘ARAMCO’ is estimated at $2.241 trillion. On the other hand, the market capitalization value of Apple, the top company in the world, is $2.728 trillion and the second-ranked company, Microsoft, is estimated at $2.344 trillion. Moreover, the market capitalization value of Alphabet (Google) is $1.64 trillion and that of Amazon is $1.339 trillion.
At the end of December 2022, Saudi Arabia’s ‘ARAMCO’ company earned a total revenue of $535.188 billion and their net income was $161.068 billion. The company’s operating income is fixed at $305 billion and net profit was $105.37 billion in 2021. Actually, Saudi Arabia produces an average of 7 million barrels of crude oil per day and exports it around the world.
In fact, Saudi Arabia, a country with a population of only 3.61 million, has grown to a very strong position in the past six decades based on massive gas and oil exports in the global market. According to information provided by Wikipedia, Saudi Arabia has emerged as the world’s most powerful and globally influential country, with a nominal GDP of $1.063 trillion in 2023. However, as of March 2023, the total foreign debt of the nation was $267.9 billion in 2022.
Actually, Saudi Arabia’s GDP grew 8.7% in the 2022 fiscal year on the back of high oil prices, despite its slow 3.7% in the current year 2023. On the other hand, the real GDP is projected to grow by 4.4% in 2024, 5.7% in 2025, and 5.1% in 2026.
According to the data for August 2023, Saudi Arabia had a forex reserve of $427.048 billion. Although last January it was $437.76 billion. On the other hand, the state treasury of Saudi Arabia has about 323.07 tons of gold reserves. Moreover, in the recent past, ignoring the objections of the US, Saudi Arabia has created a new surprise by starting to reserve the yuan, the currency of China, alongside the dollar as a foreign currency reserve.
In the month of June 2023, Saudi Arabia exported an average of 6.8 million barrels per day. However, in March of this year, Saudi Arabia exported an average of 7.523 million barrels per day and an average of 7.316 million barrels of crude oil or fuel oil per day in April, 2023. Moreover, the country achieved a new milestone by exporting crude oil worth $326 billion to the world in 2022. However, in 2022, Saudi Arabia exported goods and services from the international market $257.27 billion. Besides, Saudi Arabia imported goods and services worth $213.02 billion in 2021 and $182 billion in 2020.
Especially in the heat of the Ukraine-Russia war, Saudi Arabia’s gas and oil exports have increased greatly since the beginning of 2022. In 2022, Saudi Arabia exported oil, gas, and other non-oil goods worth about $408 billion to the world. Moreover, the country exports 289.82 billion dollars in 2021 and 184.16 billion dollars in 2020.##