The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised its 2023 growth forecasts for Saudi Arabia’s economy by 0.1% from April to 3.7%.
It maintained its projections for the Kingdom’s economic growth during 2022 at 7.6% compared to 4.4% in January.
This was revealed Tuesday in its World Economic Outlook report for July.
It expected global real growth domestic product (GDP) to slow to 3.6% in 2022 from a forecast of 4.4% due to the war in Ukraine.
The report baseline forecast is for growth to slow from 6.1% last year to 3.2% in 2022, 0.4 percentage point lower than in the April 2022 World Economic Outlook.
It attributed this decline to the weaker-than-expected growth, with significantly less momentum in private consumption, in part reflecting the erosion of household purchasing power and the expected impact of a steeper tightening in monetary policy.
According to the report, baseline growth in the United States is revised down by 1.4 percentage points and 1.3 percentage points in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
In China, further lockdowns and the deepening real estate crisis have led growth to be revised down by 1.1 percentage points, with major global spillovers.
International institutions have recently raised their expectations for the performance of the Saudi economy based on its recovery from the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, the ongoing economic reform programs as part of its Vision 2030, in addition to the hike in average oil prices in global markets.
These strategic factors have driven positive forecasts for the country’s GDP.
Earlier this year, the World Bank expected Saudi Arabia’s GDP to accelerate to 7% in 2022, up from 4.9% forecast in January, despite lowering its annual global growth forecast for 2022 by nearly a full percentage point, down from 4.1% to 3.2%.
