Saudi Arabia, the Arab world’s biggest economy, attracted foreign direct investment inflows of 96 billion riyals ($25.6 billion) in 2023, beating official targets, according to government data based on a new calculation methodology.
The kingdom introduced a new methodology last year to collect and report FDI data in a bid to bolster the transparency and accuracy of the published statistics, which led to a significant upward revision in total figures for 2022.
The ministry of investment said in its latest report that actual FDI inflows last year were 16 per cent more than the targeted 83 billion riyals under the National Investment Strategy (NIS), and equivalent to 2.4 per cent of the country’s nominal GDP.
Inflows were up 50 per cent over 2022 figures, after excluding a one-off Aramco pipeline deal valued at 55 billion riyals in 2022.
Saudi Arabia is in the middle of a massive economic overhaul overseen by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman under the Vision 2030 plan to boost non-oil growth, expand the private sector and create jobs.
The National Investment Strategy is targeting FDI of $100 billion by 2030, or almost 6 per cent of the country’s GDP.
Total FDI stock stood at 897 billion riyals by the end of 2023, accounting for 22.5 per cent of GDP and up 13 per cent from the previous year.
The manufacturing, finance and insurance, construction, and wholesale and retail trade sectors were the top draws for FDI last year making up 78 per cent of total FDI inflows in 2023, the report showed.
The government has said it would update existing investment laws in a bid to increase transparency and promote equal treatment of local and foreign investors.
