RIYADH — Saudi Arabia's exports to five countries recorded a big rise of 36 percent, reaching SR562.3 billion by the end of 2018, according to a recent government report. The top five importing countries are China, Japan, India, South Korea, and the United States. This makes up 50.9 percent of the total volume of exports of Saudi Arabia during the period. The report showed that China ranked first with a value of SR146.7 or 13.3 percent of the total exports, while the increase in exports to China reached 50.7 percent during the year. Japan came second, with an import amounting to SR123.6 billion or 11.2 percent of the total Saudi exports. Japan's imports from Saudi Arabia jumped by 23.2 percent. India stood third in terms of the total imports from the Kingdom amounting to SR98.7 billion, an increase of 33.7 percent comparing with 2017 while Saudi exports to South Korea valued at SR97.6 billion, an increase of 31.8 percent as against the previous year. Saudi Arabia's exports to the United States amounted to SR95.6 billion. With regard to imports, the report showed that the top five countries in exporting their products to Saudi Arabia accounted for 43.3 percent of the total imports. Exports of these countries increased by 3.4 percent, reaching SR 222.7 billion during the last year. China ranked first in its exports to Saudi Arabia with a value of SR81.8 billion, an increase with making up of 15.9 percent of the total imports of Saudi Arabia. The United States came second with SR70.6 billion or 13.7 percent of the total Saudi imports while Germany came third with a value of SR28.3 billion, and India ranked fourth with a value of SR21.3 billion whereas Japan ranked fifth with a value of SR20.6 billion. With regard to the Kingdom's export of non-oil products, the report showed that export of petrochemicals rose by 31.2 percent to reach SR154.7 billion, equivalent to 14 percent of total exports, and export of building materials rose by 33.2 percent reaching SR20.8 billion. The value of exports classified under the category "other goods" including "re-export" rose by 1.1 percent to reach SR46.2 billion, while exports of agricultural, animal and food products decreased by 3.5 percent, reaching SR13.8 billion.
