Saudi non-oil GDP 'remains good'

Kuwait: Saudi Arabia expects non-oil gross domestic product to be ‘good' in real terms in 2009, Finance Minister Ebrahim Al Assaf said yesterday.

The global financial crisis sent Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, into a downturn but the recovery in oil prices is helping the kingdom get back on its feet.

Speaking on the sidelines of a Gulf Arab summit in Kuwait, Al Assaf said non-oil GDP in Saudi Arabia would "not only be positive, but good in real terms" in 2009.

Saudi Arabia's economy is expected to shrink by 0.9 per cent this year before growing by 3.2 per cent in 2010, a Reuters poll showed last month.

Analysts said expansion of the kingdom's non-oil gross domestic product, which accounts for around 46 per cent of the total output, would be lower in 2009 than in the previous years of oil-led boom as business activity slowed and credit dried up.

"I expect that Saudi Arabia will have positive non-oil GDP this year, however, compared with the last year, there is a sizable decline," said John Sfakianakis, chief economist at Banque Saudi Fransi-Credit Agricole Group in Riyadh, who expects 2.5 per cent non-oil GDP growth.