RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s total merchandise exports rose 4.4 percent in March to SR106.1 billion ($28.29 billion), compared to SR101.1 billion in the previous month, according to the latest report released by the Kingdom’s General Authority for Statistics.
The authority, however, noted that the Kingdom’s overall merchandise exports fell 25.3 percent year-on-year in March, as the value of exports amounted to SR142 million in the same month of 2022.
GASTAT also pointed out that this year-on-year fall in exports was primarily driven by a decrease in oil shipments which fell 26.5 percent in March to SR83.1 billion.
According to the report, the share of oil in total exports decreased from 79.6 percent in March 2022 to 78.3 percent in March 2023.
Earlier in May, a report released by the Joint Organizations Data Initiative suggested that Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports increased by 68,000 barrels per day to 7.52 million bpd in March from 7.45 mbpd in February.
It further noted that Saudi Arabia’s non-oil exports, including re-exports, fell by 21 percent year-on-year in March to SR23 billion, while on a month-on-month basis, it rose by SR1.5 billion or 7.2 percent.
Saudi Arabia’s merchandise imports rose by 9.8 percent in March 2023 to SR61.8 billion, compared to SR56.3 billion in the same month of the previous year. On a month-on-month basis, the Kingdom’s imports rose by SR4.9 billion, or 8.5 percent.
The GASTAT report revealed that the most imported merchandise in March 2023 was chemical and allied products, accounting for 32.3 percent of total non-oil imports.
China was the major merchandise trading partner of Saudi Arabia in March, as exports to the Asian giant amounted to SR18.2 billion or 17.1 percent of the total.
China was closely followed by Japan and India with SR10 billion and SR9.2 billion of the total exports, respectively.
As for Saudi imports, China also took the lead and was responsible for 19 percent of the total during that period, reaching SR11.7 billion in March, followed by the US and the UAE, with imports valued at SR5.4 billion and SR3.8 billion, respectively.
The report added that the Jeddah Islamic Port topped the list of ports through which goods reached the Kingdom in March at a value of SR16.4 billion, accounting for 26.5 percent of the total imports.
