Saudi Arabia’s total merchandise exports continued to decline in August, dropping by 23.4% year-on-year to $27.3 billion (SAR 102.4 billion), as lower oil shipments from one of the world’s top oil producers dragged on, new data showed Wednesday.
Despite another double-digit plunge, August’s exports showed an improvement from the previous month, when shipments logged a year-on-year decline of 34.9%.
The drop in exports was primarily due to Saudi’s declining oil shipments, which tumbled by 27.1% year-on-year to $20.8 billion (SAR 77.9 billion), according to the latest data from the kingdom’s General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT).
Notably, the share of oil in Saudi’s total exports also plunged to 76.1% in August 2023 from 79.9% in August 2022.
Non-oil exports, including re-exports, also sank 8.6% year-on-year in August to $6.5 billion (SAR 24.5 billion) but rose 12.2% from July.
Quarter-on-quarter, overall exports in August rose by $2.8 billion (SAR 10.4 billion) or 11.3%.
Meanwhile, Saudi imports registered a 3.6% fall in August compared to a year-ago period, reversing an increase it logged in the previous month and reaching a value of $16.4 billion (SAR 61.5 billion).
