Saudi Arabia’s GDP climbs nearly 12% in 2nd quarter on oil gains

Saudi Arabia’s year-on-year economic growth hit nearly 12 per cent for the second quarter, led by a surging oil sector, the government’s statistics agency said Sunday.

The Middle East’s largest economy has benefited from a spike in oil prices triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and has largely resisted appeals from Western countries to raise output in order to bring prices down.

Growth in the second quarter was 11.8 per cent compared to the same period last year, according to initial “flash” estimates published by the General Authority for Statistics.

“This dynamic growth was mainly due to the increasing in oil activities by 23.1 per cent,” the agency said.