By Abdurahman Al-Misbahi

Okaz/Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to jump 29.53 percent to $889.5 billion by the year 2023 while comparing with the year 2017. The GDP is projected to increase 12.11 percent to $769.88 billion during the current year against $689.38 billion in the previous year, according to a report of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The robust growth in GDP consolidates the Kingdom’s position in the Group 20 countries, which are considered the largest economies in the world.

The IMF estimates projected a further rise of 15.85 percent in GDP reaching $795.58 billion in 2019 and 18.72 percent surge in 2020 with the volume of GDP exceeding $815 billion. According to the IMF projections, Saudi Arabia surpasses Turkey in terms of the GDP growth. Turkey’s GDP is expected to reach $713.51 billion during the year 2018, much below the Kingdom’s projected GDP of $769.88 billion. There was a decrease of 16.21 percent in the GDP of Turkey, and that resulted in its rank falling among the G20 countries from 17 to 19.

Over the past few years, the Saudi economy, the largest in the Arab world, posted a qualitative leap among the economic powers in the world. The Kingdom’s position shot up to 19 in 2018 from 43 during the year 1970.

Minister of Finance Mohammed Al-Jadaan recently said that the updated forecasts of IMF about the Saudi growth have proved the effectiveness and positive impact of economic reforms and fiscal measures implemented by the government in accordance with the Fiscal Balance Program and Vision 2030.

He made these remarks while commenting on the World Economic Outlook report (WEO), published by IMF last Wednesday. The WEO report showed a decrease in the global growth projections and cut in most developed and emerging economies growths estimates for 2018 and 2019. On other hand, Saudi output is projected to expand by 2.2 percent in 2018 and 2.4 percent in 2019.