Monday, May 28, 2007
RIYADH (Zawya Dow Jones)--Saudi Arabia's imports jumped 31% in February to 22.3 billion Saudi riyals ($5.9 billion) from SAR17 billion in the same period a year ago, a government report said Monday.
The kingdom's non-oil exports in February was SAR7.57 billion compared with SAR7.3 billion in same month in 2006, data showed.
Saudi Arabia is the Middle East's largest economy and the world's top oil exporter. The kingdom is investing billions of dollars to promote a wide range of industrial projects as it benefits from record high oil revenues.
An analyst said the surge in imports was expected this year.
"I believe the strong growth in auto sales, huge amount of materials required for construction of mega projects - especially Aramco's mega projects - and the strong economic growth and increasing consumers spending were behind this surge," said Brad Bourland, chief economist at Samba Financial Group.
Other analysts, however, link the surge in imports partly to the weakening of dollar against euro and yen as Saudi Arabia pegs its riyal currency to the dollar.
Latest data show that about 25% of the kingdom's imports originated from the Eurozone and about 9% from Japan.
-By Anees Al Qudaihi, Dow Jones Newswires, +966 1 2914872, anees.alqudaihi@dowjones.com
Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
28-05-07 1150GMT
