Saudi Arabia’s economy grew by 4.5 percent in 2025, as the growth in oil, non-oil, and government activities was enabled by improved crude oil output and consistent domestic demand, which accelerated the growth.
Data released by the General Authority for Statistics reported that real gross domestic product growth had reached 5 percent year on year in the fourth quarter, following a year where the oil activities had increased 5.7 percent, and non-oil sectors surged 4.9 percent. Government activities also contributed, soaring by 0.9 percent in comparison to the previous year.
This follows after the Kingdom’s non-oil exports rose to their highest quarterly level on record, reaching $25.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, indicating a 114 percent hike compared to the first quarter of 2017, when Saudi Arabia began publishing the data.
The increase in non-oil exports highlights the strides made under the Kingdom Vision 2030 program to diversify the economy by cutting down on the revenues from crude oil and elevating the non-oil exports to non-oil gross domestic product to 50 percent of the total by the end of the decade.
GASTAT said, “The main drivers of growth in real GDP in 2025 were non-oil activities, which contributed 2.8 percentage points, and oil activities, which contributed 1.4 percentage points. Government activities and net taxes on products contributed 0.1 and 0.2 percentage points, respectively.”
The robust 2025 reading follows after the International Monetary Fund in January extended Saudi Arabia’s 2026 growth projection to 4.5 percent from 4 percent, while forecasting there had been 4.3 percent growth for 2025.
The World Bank, in its turn, forecasts the increase of the GDP of the Kingdom up to 4.3 percent this year, following the projected growth of 3.8 percent in 2025. In the non-oil industry, GASTAT records indicated that some of the activities had high returns.
The wholesale and retail trade, restaurants, and hotels sector was the top performer, expanding 6.2 percent. Financial services, insurance, and business services closely followed it with 6.1 percent growth, and electricity, gas, and water activities grew by 6 percent.
However, the crude petroleum and natural gas extraction rose by 5.7 percent, while petroleum refining activity was even higher at 5.8 percent.
Crude petroleum and natural gas extraction remained the biggest component of the economy, accounting for 17.1 percent of GDP at current prices, followed by government activities and the wholesale and retail trade sector.
The fourth quarter of 2025 saw more robust growth, with the economy growing 5 percent each year. This growth was fueled by 10.8 percent annual growth in oil activities, with non-oil activities maintaining a strong growth rate of 4.3 percent.
Meanwhile, on a seasonally adjusted quarter-on-quarter basis, the economy expanded by 1.4 percent. The expansion was again led by non-oil activities, which grew by 1.7 percent, and oil activities, which rose by 1.8 percent. The government activities shrank a little by 0.2 percent in the quarter.
The export also featured in a GDP breakdown by expenditure in the fourth quarter, with exports increasing 12.8 percent on a year-on-year basis. The private final consumption expenditure offered good support as well, growing by 3.6 percent.
On the other hand, the government’s final consumption expenditure decreased by 8.5 percent relative to the same quarter of 2024. The oil sector was the single largest contributor to the last quarter’s growth, accounting for 2.6 percentage points of the 5 percent total.
Non-oil activities added a value of 2.4 percentage points, whereas net taxes on products added 0.2 percentage points. Government activities had a marginal negative impact, detracting 0.2 percentage points from the overall growth rate.
