PHOTO
Jadwa Investment, a Riyadh-based research firm, has revised upwards its GDP growth estimates for full-year 2022 to 8.7% from 7.7% previously.
"Within this, we see oil GDP rising year-on-year, at 16.6% (vs. 15.5% previously), and non-oil growth rising by 4.3%, primarily due to higher non-oil private sector growth of 4.4% (vs. 3.4 % previously)."
Recent data from the General Authority for Statistics showed strong growth in both oil and non-oil activities in H1 2022.
"Looking forward, we expect this growth to continue in H2, which, in turn, has led us to upgrade our full year 2022 GDP forecast," said Jadwa.
The investment advisory said it forecast higher growth in three sectors: non-oil manufacturing; wholesale & retail trade, and restaurants & hotels; and transport, storage and communication.
The firm forecasts oil GDP also rising significantly year-on-year, at 16.6% (vs. 15.5% previously). However, despite a surge in oil prices during Q2, "we have maintained our Brent oil forecast at $102 per barrel for full year 2022, with a slight upward revision in the Kingdom’s average oil output (from 10.5 to 10.6 mbpd).
(Reporting by Brinda Darasha; editing by Daniel Luiz)
