By comparison, its expected growth is valued better than the growth in the last two years, observed Chief Middle East Economist, Bloomberg Economics, Ziad Daoud.

The Bloomberg Monthly GDP for Saudi Arabia developed by Ziad Daoud offers insight into the analysis built on oil and non-oil indicators.

In January, Saudi’s non-oil growth increased one percent, according to the monthly GDP series. The analysis reports this increase as ‘a slowdown’ from the previous estimation of 2.6% recorded towards the end of last year.

Ziad Daoud, said: “Sluggish private consumption, due to cuts to fuel and electricity subsidies, the introduction of VAT and rising inflation, is likely the main culprit behind the slowdown of non-oil activity in January.”

In his opinion, “However, this should pick-up due to increased government spending and recently announced royal handouts. We expect non-oil growth to average 2.7% in 2018, better than it’s done in the last two years.”

According to TradeArabia News Service, ATM cash withdrawals, money supply growth, points of sales transactions and bank clearings of cheques were factored in to draw analysis.

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