Saudi Arabia's total exports, including both oil and non-oil exports, fell 35% year-on-year (YoY) in July 2023 to 91.3 billion royals ($24.3 billion) from SAR 140 billion, dragged by lower oil exports.

Oil exports fell by SAR 43 billion, or 38%, in the same period to SAR 70 billion from SAR 113.1 billion in March 2022, data released by the General Authority for Statistics on Thursday showed.

The share of oil exports in total exports decreased from 80.6% in July 2022 to 76.8% in July 2023.

Non-oil exports (including re-exports) decreased by 22% YoY to SAR 21 billion from SAR 27 billion in July 2022.

Earlier this week, data issued by the Joint Organisations Data Initiative (JODI) said that Saudi crude oil exports fell in July to 6.01 million barrels per day (bpd), down 11.6% from 6.8 million bpd in June; the lowest for of oil exports in more than two years.

The OPEC oil heavyweight made a deep cut to its output in July, the biggest reduction in years, on top of a broader OPEC+ deal to limit supply into 2024. Output in the kingdom fell to 9.01 million bpd in July, down 943,000 bpd from June, while inventories fell by 2.96 million barrels to 146.73 million. The kingdom has extended the voluntary cuts through August and September.

Meanwhile, merchandise imports rose by 19.7% or SAR 11.3 billion in July to SAR 68.9 billion versus SAR 57.6 billion in July 2022, giving the country a positive trade balance of SAR 22 billion; down from SAR 27 million in the previous month.  

(Reporting by Brinda Darasha; editing by Daniel Luiz)
brinda.darasha@lseg.com