Saudi Arabia registered an 8.7% economic growth in 2022, the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) said on Tuesday.

The real GDP of the Kingdom during the fourth quarter of 2022 grew by 5.4 percent, compared to the same period in 2021.

“This increase in GDP was a result of the growth in the oil activities by 15.4 per cent, non-oil activities by 5.4 per cent and government services activities by 2.2 per cent,” GASTAT said in its report.

The report showed that the real GDP of non-oil activities increased by 6.2 percent, compared to the same period the previous year.

The seasonally adjusted real GDP increased by 1.5 percent during the fourth quarter of 2022, compared to the third quarter.

Bloomberg said that the Saudi economy was the fastest growing in the world since 2021, indicating that the recovery of non-oil exports boosted government revenues.

In parallel, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised its forecast for the growth of the Kingdom’s economy during 2024 to 3.4 percent.

The agency said that Saudi Arabia leads the rankings of major economies, ahead of India, revealing the growth of the non-oil sector of Saudi Arabia, which is the engine of job creation at the fastest pace in more than a year.

It added that the Saudi government would use the surplus from the budget to replenish its reserves and make additional transfers to sovereign wealth funds, as well as boost spending on projects aimed at helping diversify the country’s economy away from dependence on oil revenues.