Economics
Saudi Economy Contracted 3.9% in Fourth Quarter as Oil Drags
- Kingdom’s oil sector shrank 8.5%, worst since at least 2011
- Non-oil economy performed better with 0.8% contraction
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Saudi Arabia’s economy contracted 3.9% in the fourth quarter of 2020 from the same period a year earlier, dragged down by the biggest slump in the oil sector in at least 10 years.
Still, the overall data marked an improvement from the previous quarter, when the economy shrank an annual 4.6%, as Covid-19 cases eased and the kingdom gradually returned to business as usual, according to a release from the government’s General Authority for Statistics. The economy contracted 4.1% last year, in line with February’s preliminary estimates.