DUBAI, 14 April 2006 — Saudi Arabia, the world’s leading oil producer, was the 18th top exporter in the world with the Middle East, Africa and the CIS, the world’s largest net exporters of fuels, benefiting from the rise in fuel prices and increased their merchandise exports values between 29 percent and 36 percent in 2005, says the latest World Trade Organization report.
Only Saudi Arabia and the UAE from the GCC and Middle East region feature in the top exporters and importers list. “Sharply rising export revenues in 2004 and 2005 enabled these regions to expand their merchandise and services imports faster than the global average, said the 2005 WTO report.
Large differences are apparent in the trade performance of individual countries.
Among the top 30 merchandise exporters, there is a marked contrast between the moderate export increases reported by several European countries and the sharp rises reported for the oil-exporting countries.
Despite these large variations, the changes in the ranking of exporters was not much affected. The UAE moved up three places in the rankings, and Russia two places, to become, respectively, the 24th and 13th largest merchandise exporters in 2005.
Saudi Arabia and Brazil moved up by one place to become the, 18th and 23rd largest exporters.
Saudi Arabia was the top 18th top exporter with total exports of $178,8 billion, the Kingdom has climbed one ranked from 2004’s 19 position.
The Kingdom’s share in global exports is 1.7 percent and was up 42 percent. The total exports of merchandise exports of the top 30 countries totaled $8712.7 billion.
The UAE was 24th top exporter with $12.5 billion of exports and contributing to 1.1 per cent of the top 30 countries’ total. The UAE moved up three places in the rankings. On the import side, annual growth rates of the 30 leading importers varied between a low 4 percent recorded by Austria to a peak of 35 percent for India.
