Saudi Arabia: $4.53 Billion in Foreign Direct Investment Received in Third Quarter of 2023

Saudi Arabia is emerging as a major center of gravity for foreign direct investment (FDI) not only in the Arab world, but throughout the Global South. According to data released by Riyadh’s General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT), “FDI inflows into the Saudi economy reached $4.53 billion in the third quarter.” Last October, GASTAT, in cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), developed and adopted a new calculation methodology, according to which “between July and September 2024, foreign direct investment emanating from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia amounted to $1.33 billion, and net FDI amounted to $2.93 billion.” For the period April-June 2023, the net FDI flow amounted to $3.47 billion.

Riyadh continues to publish very encouraging statistics for global strategic investors. According to Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Minister of Human Resources and Social Development Ahmed Al-Zahrani, 2.4 million citizens are now active in the Kingdom’s private sector, with the proportion of women rising by 36 percent. “This,” said Ahmed Al-Zahrani, “is a truly exceptional figure, as the growth in the number of workers in the Arab country’s private sector recorded over the past six years is unprecedented in any other labor market in the world.”