Saudi Arabia’s non-oil exports increased by 27.5 percent year-on-year in January 2022, rising to SAR 24.1 billion ($6.42 billion) from SAR 18.9 billion in January 2021, according to the International Trade Report for January 2022 issued by the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT).
The most important non-oil goods were ‘Plastics and Rubber and Articles Thereof’ (32.7 percent of non-oil merchandise exports), which increased by 28.9 percent SAR 1.8 billion and ‘Products of the Chemical or Allied Industries’ (31.2 percent of non-oil merchandise exports), an increase of 44.4 percent SAR 2.3 billion from January 2021.
The kingdom’s overall merchandise exports increased by 49.6 percent in January 2022 compared to January 2021. The value of exports amounted to SAR 107.6 billion in January 2022, up from SAR 71.9 billion in January 2021, according to the This increase originated mainly from oil exports, which rose by SAR 30.5 billion or 57.5% in the same period.
The share of oil exports in total exports increased from 73.7 percent in January 2021 to 77.6 percent in January 2022. Compared to December 2021, total merchandise exports increased by SAR 1.0 billion or 1 percent.
The most important imported commodities were ‘Machinery and Mechanical Appliances; Electrical Equipment’ (22.3 percent of total merchandise imports), and ‘Products of the Chemical or Allied Industries’ (15 percent of total merchandise imports).
As many as SAR 14.2 billion of imports, corresponding to 27.4 percent of the total, entered the kingdom from Jeddah Islamic Sea Port in January 2022. Among the other major ports of entry for the imports were King Abdulaziz Port (20.3 percent), King Khalid International Airport (12.7 percent), King Fahad Airport (6.1 percent), and Bat’ha (5.9 percent).
Those five ports together accounted for 72.3 percent of the total merchandise imports of the kingdom.