RIYADH — The General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) announced on Tuesday that Saudi trade balance achieved a surplus for the 38th month in a row. The volume of foreign trade in October 2023 recorded an increase of seven percent, reaching SR178 billion, compared to SR167 billion in September last year. The authority stated that the Kingdom's overall merchandise exports during the month of October recorded a decrease of 17.4 percent to SR104.3 billion, compared to SR126.2 billion in October 2022. On a month-on-month basis, the merchandise exports registered a slight increase of SR15 million (0.01 percent) in October this year compared to the previous month. The report attributed the reason for this decline to a decrease of 18.3 percent (SR18.4 billion) in oil exports reaching SR82.3 billion, compared to SR100.7 billion on an annual basis. The proportion of oil exports out of total exports declined from 79.7 percent to 78.9 percent. The report indicated that non-oil exports (including re-exports) decreased by 13.9 percent from October 2022, recording SR22 billion, compared to SR25.6 billion while these exports decreased (excluding re-exports) to 17.9 percent. The value of re-exports increased to 12.6 percent during the same period. The merchandise imports recorded an increase of 11.5 percent reaching SR73.9 billion in October compared to SR66.3 billion during the same period last year. It recorded a surge of 17.5 percent or SR11 billion compared to September, the GASTAT report pointed out. The authority stated that the volume of the Kingdom's foreign trade during October reached SR178 billion, bringing the Kingdom's foreign trade during the first 10 months of 2023 to more than SR678 billion. The report showed that the value of the Kingdom's exports to China amounted to SR19.5 billion, equivalent to 18.7 percent of total exports during October 2023, making this country the main destination for exports, followed by Japan and India. The value of imports from China amounted to SR14.9 billion, equivalent to 20.1 percent of total imports during last October, making China ranked first for the Kingdom's imports, followed by the United States of America and the UAE. Jeddah Islamic Port is one of the most important ports through which goods crossed into the Kingdom with a value of SR20.8 billion, equivalent to 8.2 percent of the total imports in October 2023.
