Saudi Arabia's real gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter shrank 1.7% from a year earlier, preliminary government data showed on Sunday, as a decline in oil activities continued to weigh on overall growth.
Oil activities were down 11.2% in the first quarter © Mena Today
Saudi Arabia's real gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter shrank 1.7% from a year earlier, preliminary government data showed on Sunday, as a decline in oil activities continued to weigh on overall growth.
The kingdom's GDP shrank 3.7% in the fourth quarter of 2023. The decline in the first quarter was the third consecutive quarter of year-on-year contraction in the kingdom, hurt by cuts to oil production and lower crude prices.
Oil activities were down 11.2% in the first quarter versus the previous year, estimates from the General Authority for Statistics showed, while non-oil GDP grew 3.4% year on year and government activities increased 2%.
Reporting by Hadeel Al Sayegh
The leader of Yemen's southern separatists, Aidarous al-Zubaidi, was in the port city of Aden on Wednesday, the group said, after he skipped a flight to Riyadh for talks on a crisis that caused a major feud between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
When the United Arab Emirates withdrew its troops from Yemen last week under a deadline from Saudi Arabia, it also left behind the remote Yemeni island of Socotra and the roughly 600 tourists who had flown in but could no longer fly out.
A delegation led by Aidarous al-Zubaidi, the leader of Yemen's main separatist group STC, will soon travel to Saudi Arabia, two sources told Reuters on Monday, a potential sign of progress towards ending a conflict between separatists and Yemen's internationally recognised government.
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