Saudi Arabia's economic growth is expected to more than double in 2022, helped by higher oil prices and a “robust” non-oil sector, while unemployment among citizens is on the decline, said private equity group Jadwa Investment.
The Arab world's biggest economy is forecast to grow 7.7 per cent in 2022, from 3.2 per cent last year, Jadwa said in a report.
The growth projection is a “result of sizeably higher oil sector growth”, Jadwa said.
Oil gross domestic product is set to rise 15.5 per cent while robust non-oil growth of 3.4 per cent is expected.
The non-oil sector grew 6.1 per cent a year in 2021 while oil GDP recorded annual growth of 0.2 per cent.
Other predictions have also projected strong growth for the Saudi economy this year.
Real GDP in the kingdom, Opec’s biggest oil producer and the world's largest exporter, is expected to expand 7.6 per cent in 2022, according to Japan's largest bank MUFG, while Emirates NBD has forecast 6 per cent growth.
In January, the International Monetary Fund said it expected the kingdom’s economy to grow 4.8 per cent.
Brent, the global benchmark for two thirds of the world's oil, surged to about $140 a barrel earlier this month, the highest since 2008. The benchmark is up about 50 per cent since the start of the year.
Last week, S&P Global Ratings affirmed Saudi Arabia’s rating at “A-/A-2” and revised its outlook to positive from stable, citing improving GDP growth and fiscal dynamics over the medium term.
Unemployment among Saudi nationals hit its lowest levels since 2009 as the economy continues its rebound from the impact of the pandemic and as oil prices rally, government data showed.
The unemployment rate for citizens declined to 11 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to 11.3 per cent in the previous three-month period, data from the kingdom’s General Authority for Statistics showed.
Unemployment is lower by 1.6 percentage points when compared to the fourth quarter of 2020.
Labour participation rates rose to 51.5 per cent during the fourth quarter, compared to 49.8 per cent in the third quarter, mainly as a result of higher female participation.
Job creation for both Saudi men and women is among the country's top priorities under its Vision 2030 plan to wean the economy off oil revenue and increase the rate of employment among citizens.
Consumer spending was up 10.4 per cent a year in February despite declining by 9.3 per cent a month, Jadwa said. Within this, point-of-sale transactions rose 25 per cent while ATM cash withdrawals fell 11.1 per cent a year, according to Al Rajhi Capital's monthly economic report.
The increase in POS transactions was mainly driven by a 58.8 per cent annual increase in spending at restaurants and hotels, followed by miscellaneous goods and services (49.4 per cent), clothing and footwear (27.8 per cent), transport (18.9 per cent) and food and beverages (15.8 per cent), Al Rajhi Capital said.
“With consumer sentiment climbing to its highest level on record in March, and with a vast majority of Covid-19 restrictions being lifted during the same month, we expect consumer spending to show strong levels of growth in the months ahead,” Jadwa said.
Remittances made by Saudi nationals increased 33.7 per cent a year in February 2022, compared with a 45.3 per cent yearly increase in the previous month, to about 5.4 billion Saudi riyals, it said.
However, remittances growth on the part of residents declined 0.9 per cent a year in February to about 11.2bn riyals.
In terms of inflation, the cost of living index continued to be in a “positive trajectory”, Al Rajhi said. The index increased by 1.6 per cent a year in February 2022, mainly because of higher costs in the transport and food and beverages segments.
“Looking ahead, we expect rises in global food prices, as a result of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, to put upward pressure on food prices locally,” Jadwa said.
The current conflict in Eastern Europe has pushed up global food and energy prices, with the two warring countries, Russia and Ukraine, being major suppliers of wheat, grains and other commodities.
THE BIO
Age: 33
Favourite quote: “If you’re going through hell, keep going” Winston Churchill
Favourite breed of dog: All of them. I can’t possibly pick a favourite.
Favourite place in the UAE: The Stray Dogs Centre in Umm Al Quwain. It sounds predictable, but it honestly is my favourite place to spend time. Surrounded by hundreds of dogs that love you - what could possibly be better than that?
Favourite colour: All the colours that dogs come in
Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
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From Europe to the Middle East, economic success brings wealth - and lifestyle diseases
A rise in obesity figures and the need for more public spending is a familiar trend in the developing world as western lifestyles are adopted.
One in five deaths around the world is now caused by bad diet, with obesity the fastest growing global risk. A high body mass index is also the top cause of metabolic diseases relating to death and disability in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman – and second on the list in Bahrain.
In Britain, heart disease, lung cancer and Alzheimer’s remain among the leading causes of death, and people there are spending more time suffering from health problems.
The UK is expected to spend $421.4 billion on healthcare by 2040, up from $239.3 billion in 2014.
And development assistance for health is talking about the financial aid given to governments to support social, environmental development of developing countries.
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Five famous companies founded by teens
There are numerous success stories of teen businesses that were created in college dorm rooms and other modest circumstances. Below are some of the most recognisable names in the industry:
- Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg and his friends started Facebook when he was a 19-year-old Harvard undergraduate.
- Dell: When Michael Dell was an undergraduate student at Texas University in 1984, he started upgrading computers for profit. He starting working full-time on his business when he was 19. Eventually, his company became the Dell Computer Corporation and then Dell Inc.
- Subway: Fred DeLuca opened the first Subway restaurant when he was 17. In 1965, Mr DeLuca needed extra money for college, so he decided to open his own business. Peter Buck, a family friend, lent him $1,000 and together, they opened Pete’s Super Submarines. A few years later, the company was rebranded and called Subway.
- Mashable: In 2005, Pete Cashmore created Mashable in Scotland when he was a teenager. The site was then a technology blog. Over the next few decades, Mr Cashmore has turned Mashable into a global media company.
- Oculus VR: Palmer Luckey founded Oculus VR in June 2012, when he was 19. In August that year, Oculus launched its Kickstarter campaign and raised more than $1 million in three days. Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion two years later.
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