Saudi per capita income estimated to reach SR96,375

Saudi per capita income is estimated to reach $25,700 (SR96,375) in the current year (2013) compared to $ 23,000 in 2012, local media said quoting global reports.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) last year raised estimates of the Saudi per capital income from SR81,200 ($21,600) in 2011 to SR 87,277 ($23,000) in 2012.
According to the Global Wealth Report, released by Credit Suisse Research Institute, the average per capita income of the adult in Saudi Arabia was raised by 56 percent in 2011, compared to 2000, to reach $ 35,959.
Experts, meanwhile, said the per capita income is affected by a variety of factors including, among others, pegging the Saudi riyal with the US dollar and the increased rates of inflation at the local market which erode people’s incomes.
Economic adviser Abdulrahman Al-Qahtani, speaking to Al-Riyadh daily, said Saudi per capita income is projected to hit SR97,000 by the end of 2016, based on estimates released by the IMF.
The share of a Saudi individual in the gross domestic product (GDP) is not a realistic yardstick to measure Saudi per capita income as the oil prices are substantially affecting the Kingdom’s GDP per capita income, he said.
He said pegging the Saudi riyal to the dollar and higher rates of inflation at the local market made a huge impact on per capita income levels.
For his part, economic analyst Mohamed Salim said the share of an individual in the GDP is a global measure to assess the economic indicators of a country. However, it does not reflect the real per capita income which is directly related to the size of local economy in relation to the population and their impact on the prosperity of the prevailing economic activity and improvement of standard of living for individuals.
He stressed the importance of improving the real income of individuals through the raising wages of workers in the public and private sectors, curbing inflation rates, monitoring commodity prices by government agencies, represented by the Ministry of Commerce, and imposing strict and harsh penalties on market manipulators.