Macroeconomic Update – March 2020: (COVID-19 changes everything, for now)

We expect economic growth in Saudi Arabia to improve in 2020 as both the oil and non-oil sectors contribute to overall growth. Latest full year GDP data for 2019 showed that the economy just about managed to record growth at 0.3 percent, but we expect this to improve significantly in the year ahead, to 6.3 percent, primarily as a result of sizable rises in yearly crude oil production.