The report, which was prepared by the ministry’s Statistics Department, said the Kingdom’s imports grew by one percent during March from SR29.62 billion to SR29.98 billion.
Petrochemicals accounted for 31 percent of the country’s exports and were valued at SR3.59 billion.
Plastic products came second, representing 30 percent (SR3.39 billion) followed by re-exports (15 percent or SR1.68 billion), the report said. “Exports of foodstuffs accounted for eight percent of the total and were valued at SR928 million,” it pointed out.
The report showed that about 32 percent of Saudi exports (valued at SR3.68 billion) in March went to non-Arab Asian countries. GCC countries received products worth SR2.77 billion, other Arab countries SR2.17 billion and European countries SR1.23 billion.
“Non-Arab Islamic countries imported Saudi products valued at SR713 million in March,” the report said. The amount represented six percent of the total Saudi exports. China was the largest importer of Saudi products (SR1.3 billion), followed by the UAE (SR1.24 billion), Singapore (SR762 million), Qatar (SR533 million) and India (SR520 million).
Focusing on Saudi imports from other countries in March, the report said about 28 percent of these exports were equipment, machineries and electrical utensils, adding that they were valued at SR8.38 billion. Automobiles listed second among the imports and were valued at SR5.35 billion, followed by foodstuffs valued at SR4.54 billion.
About 32 percent of the Kingdom’s imports came from non-Arab Asian countries (SR9.69 billion). Exports from EU countries accounted for 28 percent (SR8.48 billion), North America 16 percent (SR4.8 billion), the GCC six percent (SR1.74 billion) and Islamic countries five percent (SR1.56 billion).
The US topped the list of exporters to the Kingdom in March sending goods worth SR4.47 billion or 15 percent, followed by China SR3.2 billion or 11 percent, Japan SR2.7 billion or nine percent, Germany SR2.42 billion or eight percent, and India SR1.24 billion or 4 percent.
Meanwhile, the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) said on Tuesday that it has financed a large number of development and welfare projects worth more than SR30.86 billion in 75 developing countries since its inception in 1975.
“We have given 465 loans to finance 451 projects in 43 African countries, 26 Asian countries and six states in other continents,” the SFD said in its annual report, which was carried by the Saudi Press Agency. African countries received 48.47 percent of SFD loans worth SR14.96 billion while Asian countries received SR15.35 billion or 49.75 percent.
