RIYADH: The Saudi economy grew in the third quarter of 2021 by the fastest pace since 2012, as the country’s oil output rose over the last year.

The kingdom’s real GDP grew at an annual rate of 6.8 per cent in the third quarter, compared with the negative growth of 4.5 per cent a year ago, Arab News quoted flash estimates issued by the General Authority for Statistics.

Oil activities went up by an annual rate of 9 per cent in the third quarter of 2021; following a drop of 7 per cent in the previous quarter. This is the first increase in the annual rate of growth in the oil activities since the first quarter of 2019.

Rising world demand for oil in 2021 helped fuel this increase, GASTAT said.

Meanwhile, the growth in non-oil activities eased to 6.2 per cent in this year’s third quarter; following a higher 11.1 per cent expansion in the previous quarter, according to the release.

GASTAT has made an upward revision in its previous estimate for the non-oil growth in the second quarter of 8.4 per cent posted September 13.

In addition, the output of the government activities went up 2.7 per cent, compared with 0.4 per cent in the second quarter. This compares with GASTAT previous estimate of 2.3 per cent.

On a quarterly seasonally adjusted basis, the Saudi economy grew 5.8 per cent in the third quarter, accelerating significantly from the previous quarter’s 1.1 per cent.

This was fuelled, again, by a rapidly increasing oil activities, which expanded by a quarterly rate of 12.9 per cent.

The Capital Economics said further strengthening of the Saudi output is expected for the fourth quarter and next year.

The main drivers of the projected rise in the output are raised production quotas by Opec+, a further relaxing of the Covid restrictions, and a possible loosening in the Saudi fiscal policy.

The London-based firm also outlined its growth projections for the next year.

It expects the Saudi economy to expand 7.3 per cent in 2022, which is above the consensus prediction of 5 per cent.