According to estimates released by the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT), Saudi Arabia saw its non-oil and government sectors expand by 0.9 percent year-on-year during the second quarter of 2026. Despite this positive momentum, the Kingdom's overall real gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 4.7 percent compared to the second quarter of 2025, driven primarily by a 24.8 percent reduction in oil activities.
Several sectors demonstrated resilience, with community, social, and personal services leading annual growth at 4.1 percent. Finance, insurance, and business services grew by 3.3 percent, while the agriculture, forestry, and fishing sector registered a 2.6 percent increase. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, these sectors grew by 0.6 percent, 0.7 percent, and 0.9 percent, respectively.
In terms of contributions to the annual real GDP, non-oil activities added 0.6 percentage points, while government activities and net taxes on products each added 0.1 percentage points. Conversely, oil activities exerted a negative drag of 5.4 percentage points. Compared with the first quarter of 2026, seasonally adjusted real GDP fell by 4.8 percent, with oil activities decreasing by 21.6 percent and non-oil activities dipping by 0.4 percent, while government activities managed a 0.2 percent quarterly increase.
From an expenditure perspective, final government consumption expenditure rose by 5 percent year-on-year, gross fixed capital formation increased by 2.7 percent, and private final consumption expenditure rose by 0.8 percent. On a quarterly basis, private final consumption grew by 1 percent, while government final consumption fell by 2 percent and gross fixed capital formation dropped by 1.4 percent.
In foreign trade, exports dropped by 24.6 percent year-on-year and 24 percent quarter-on-quarter. Imports also experienced declines, falling by 14.8 percent compared to the same period last year and 5.5 percent relative to the first quarter of 2026.
