London
Economic activity picked up in Saudi Arabia in the third-quarter according to data released on Tuesday. The economy grew by 1.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted quarter-on-quarter basis in the third quarter compared to a contraction of 4.9 percent in the previous quarter, the Kingdom’s General Authority for Statistics said. However when compared to a year earlier, the Saudi economy shrank by 4.2 percent, which represented an improvement on the previous three months when business was forced to a near standstill because of pandemic-related lockdowns. For the first time, the General Authority for Statistics has published what it calls “flash estimates” for quarterly GDP performance in an effort to provide more timely data about how the economy is faring. The aim is to disseminate such information more quickly at the end of each quarter.—AN
