| Saudi Arabia will be the fastest growing economy in the G20 this year, with its GDP poised to surge 9.9%, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The Saudi government forecasts GDP to grow 8% this year, before easing to 3.1% in 2023, then climbing back to 6% in 2024 and 4.5% in 2025, on the back of non-oil activities and realisation of Saudi Vision 2030 programmes.
The kingdom’s bright outlook comes amid slowing global growth, which is projected to reach 3% in 2022, then 2.25% in 2023, well below the pace foreseen prior to the geopolitical tensions, OECD said. In 2023, real global incomes could be around USD 2.8 trillion lower than expected a year ago (a shortfall of just over 2% of GDP in PPP terms).
The OECD expects Saudi inflation to rise to 2.5% in 2022 and 3.2% in 2023, which is in sharp contrast to global headline inflation projected to ease from 8.2% in 2022 to 6.5% in 2023 in the G20 economies, and decline from 6.2% this year to 4% in 2023 in the G20 advanced economies.
The government’s 2023 pre-budget statement points to the measures taken by authorities to rein in inflation and maintain economic growth. These include measures to support economic activities, reduce the burdens of cost of living through policies and procedures that minimises the impact of global inflation rates, such as setting a ceiling for gasoline prices, ensuring the ample availability of food products in the domestic markets, and increasing allocations for social protection programmes.
A new economic indicator by the Ministry of Economy to track sentiment in the kingdom’s private sector will lead to greater insights on economic trends.
“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,” said Faisal Al-Ibrahim, minister of economy and planning | 
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