FDI into Saudi Arabia grows 10.2% to $2.1bn: economy ministry

Saudi Arabia attracted SR8.1 billion ($2.1 billion) in foreign direct investment in the first quarter of 2023, marking a 10.2 percent growth year on year, showed a government report.

The figure for the first three months of 2023 also represented a 12.4 percent rise on the previous quarter, according to the latest bulletin from the Kingdom’s Ministry of Economy and Planning.

These developments align with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 economic diversification initiative, which aims to increase FDI’s contribution to the Kingdom’s gross domestic product from 3.8 percent in 2016 to 5.7 percent by 2030.

Saudi Arabia also has ambitions to become a global investment powerhouse, and the Kingdom plans to achieve it by stimulating the economy and diversifying its revenues.

The June bulletin also disclosed that the Kingdom’s GDP grew by 3.8 percent in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period last year.

Additionally, non-oil activities saw an increase of 5.4 percent year on year, while oil sectors saw a growth of 1.4 percent.

The bulletin further highlighted a 2.6 percent growth in consumer loans to SR448 billion in the first quarter compared to the year-ago period.

Moreover, workforce participation of Saudi citizens stood at 52.4 percent, while unemployment touched 8.5 percent.

According to the report, year-on-year imports also surged 27.8 percent in the first quarter to reach SR261 billion.

The growing importance of Saudi Arabia as an investment destination comes from the government’s series of initiatives.

According to the Finance Ministry, the Kingdom has enacted over 600 economic reforms since the launch of the Vision 2030 blueprint in 2016 in a bid to attract SR12.4 trillion of cumulative investment and SR1.8 trillion in FDI between 2021 and 2030.

Saad Al-Shahrani, the acting deputy minister for investment promotion, told Arab News in August 2022 that the Kingdom achieved an 18 percent increase in FDI in 2020, despite the global FDI declining by 35 percent due to the pandemic.

Similar sentiments were echoed by Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih, who announced in March that multinational companies relocating their headquarters to Saudi Arabia could get tax exemptions in a bid to woo lenders, making the Kingdom a destination to reckon with.