Abu Dhabi, UAE – The Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) said that the Arab construction sector has recovered from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, with its contribution to GDP in 2021 amounting to around $186.8 billion, up from $178.3 billion in 2020, a 4.7 percent increase.
The Saudi and UAE construction sectors contributed the most to their countries’ GDPs, with around $45.5 billion and $36.8 billion, respectively, AMF added in a recent report.
Egypt ranked third with around $27.3 billion, followed by Qatar, $24.1 billion, Algeria, $19.8 billion, Morocco, $7.7 billion, and Oman with $6.4 billion, according to the report.
Construction output ranged from $1 to $6 billion in Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Sudan, Libya, and Jordan, while it contributed less than one billion dollars to the GDPs of other Arab countries.
Saudi Arabia’s construction market is worth $68 billion per annum, thus making it the country’s second biggest non-oil sector, Saudi Gazette reported earlier, citing Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing Majid Bin Abdullah Al Hogail.
There are more than 175,000 companies that are working in the contracting sector with about 4 million workers, Al Hogail told the paper on the sidelines of the then third edition of the International Contracting Conference in capital Riyadh.