A 11.7 percent contraction in Saudi Arabia’s oil sector in Q1 has had an impact on its GDP: A decline by 3 percent to 706 billion riyals ($188 billion) in the first three months of 2021 compared to the same quarter last year.

The non-oil sector saw positive growth rate of 2.9 percent and the private sector expanded by 4.4 percent, according to the General Authority for Statistics in Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, the government sector also saw a small negative growth of 0.4 percent.

On a sequential quarter basis, GDP growth slowed slightly. The 0.5 percent dip was from the decline in the oil sector by 8.7 percent while the non-oil sector recorded a positive growth of 4.9 percent.

OPEC leader Saudi Arabia had scaled back production in the first quarter of the year as part of the cartel’s move to stabilize declining prices due to the drop in demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

(Writing by Brinda Darasha; editing by Seban Scaria)

brinda.darasha@refinitiv.com

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