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Saudi Arabia's Trade Surplus Narrows in June as Exports Fall

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Saudi Arabia's Trade Surplus Narrows in June as Exports Fall

Saudi Arabia's merchandise trade surplus declined to 17.31 billion Saudi riyals in June as both oil and non-oil exports fell, data from the General Authority for Statistics showed Tuesday.

The surplus fell by 10% versus the previous year and was down from May's revised amount of 21.86 billion riyals.

Merchandise exports decreased 4.5% year over year to 87.76 billion riyals, with a 2.3% decline in oil sales, a 9.7% drop in non-oil exports, including re-exports, and an 11.4% decrease in national non-oil exports. Accordingly, oil's share of total exports rose to 72%, up from 70.4% a year earlier.

Plastic, rubber, and related articles accounted for 20.7% of non-oil exports, though shipments of the product category fell by 12.8% compared with the prior year.

Japan was the largest buyer of the kingdom's goods for the month, taking 13.2% of overall exports, followed by South Korea at 11.5% and China at 9.4%.

Meanwhile, merchandise imports fell 3% to 70.45 billion riyals on an annual basis. Machinery, electrical equipment and its parts were Saudi Arabia's top import, at 25.7% of the total, despite falling 20.4% year on year.

China served as the country's primary source of imports, providing 22% of all goods, with Switzerland and the US accounting for 8.4% and 8.3%, respectively.

For the second quarter, Saudi's merchandise trade surplus narrowed to 61.52 billion riyals, down from 93.2 billion riyals in the previous three-month period. Total merchandise exports rose 4.1% year over year to 285.98 billion riyals, while merchandise imports fell 5.2% to 224.46 billion riyals.

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