Oil exports helped increase Saudi Arabia’s current account surplus by 148.7 percent in the three-month period ending in September, the Saudi Central Bank said in a report. This signalled a reversal of a $0.7 billion deficit in the same period last year, with the surplus now standing at $21.7 billion.
The upswing in the current account balance was attributed to a strengthening surplus in the goods balance which reached $37.9 billion in the third quarter, up from $28.9 billion in the previous one.
In particular, oil exports surged by 19.4 percent — quarter-on-quarter — to stand at $55.1 billion while non-oil exports rose by 6.2 percent to $18.3 billion.—AN
