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Saudi Arabia’s overall exports fell by around 17% in September 2023, as the kingdom continued to curb output to bolster oil prices.
The value of overall merchandise exports reached SAR103.8 billion ($27.7 billion) during the month, down from SAR125.3 billion a year earlier, the General Authority for Statistics reported on Thursday.
“This decrease originated mainly from oil exports, which fell by [17.1%],” the authority said.
Oil exports slumped by SAR17.2 billion to SAR83.1 billion, while non-oil exports, including re-exports, also dropped by 17.2% to SAR20.7 billion.
Merchandise imports fell by 2.2% to SAR60.1 billion from the previous year’s SAR61.5 billion.
Trading partners
China was Saudi Arabia’s main merchandise trading partner, with exports to the Asian state amounting to SAR19 billion, representing 18.3% of total exports.
Japan was the second-biggest destination for Saudi exports, which stood at SAR11.4 billion, followed by South Korea withSAR10.2 billion.
India, UAE, United States, Bahrain, Oman, Egypt and Poland were the other countries that ranked in the top 10 destinations.
Overall, exports of Saudi Arabia to the ten countries amounted to SAR69.7 billion, accounting for 67.1% of total exports.
In a bid to shore up prices in the global market, the kingdom and other OPEC+ members have pledged to impose supply cuts of around five million barrels per day (bpd), representing 5% of the daily global demand.
The figure includes Saudi’s voluntary cut of 1 million bpd and Russia’s 300,000 bpd reduction until year-end.
(Writing by Cleofe Maceda; editing by Seban Scaria)
