RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Economy and Planning on Sunday launched an new economic indicator called MEPX to monitor the performance of the Kingdom’s private sector, according to a statement.
It is designed to track 10 economic factors classified into four categories, consumers, firms, and the financial and trade sectors.
With the use of cutting-edge econometrics techniques, MEPX will help extrapolate the business cycle of the Kingdom’s private sector and provide analysis to officials and decision makers. All insights and analysis which will be extracted using MEPX will be used by the ministry to help bolster Saudi Arabia’s economy-related policymaking and strategies.
“As the Kingdom records its fastest economic growth in a decade, increasing access to emerging data is crucial to informing pro-growth policy making as we look to enhance the private sector’s contribution to 65 percent of Saudi Arabia’s GDP by 2030,” the statement said, citing the Minister of Economy and Planning Faisal Al-Ibrahim.
Not only will the new proactive indicator help economists, policymakers, and business leaders evaluate and forecast emerging trends and growth drivers in the private sector, but it will also allow them to pinpoint both short and medium-term growth opportunities.
“The first MEPX business cycle composite index marks an important milestone in our mission to provide accurate, trusted, and transparent economic data and statistics in the Kingdom,” the minister said.
With a projected growth rate of 7.6 percent, Saudi Arabia is estimated to become the fastest growing major economy worldwide in 2022, according to the latest World Economic Outlook Report released by the International Monetary Fund.
