Saudi Arabia’s latest trade statistics highlight the economic benefits of Saudi Aramco’s remarkably swift response to the September Abqaiq attacks which temporarily knocked out 5mn b/d of crude oil production. This enabled crude oil exports to jump to a 10-month high of 7.37mn b/d in November, helping propel crude export revenues to a three-month high of $16.6bn. Indeed, with imports falling, Saudi Arabia’s trade balance in November stood at $11.2bn, its highest figure since March 2019.
Overall, Saudi Arabia’s trade surplus for 2019 looks set to have come in at around $120bn. This is well down on 2018’s $157bn, but considerably better than the lean years prior to that, especially 2015 when the surplus was a relatively meagre $28.9bn. (CONTINUED - 149 WORDS)
