RIYADH — Saudi Arabia's export of non-oil products recorded an increase of 14.85 percent, reaching SR18.85 billion in May this year compared to April. China emerged as the top exporter and importer of Saudi products during the period. According to a monitoring of Okaz/Saudi Gazette, based on government reports, there has been an increase amounting to SR2.44 billion in the export of non-oil goods in May compared to the previous month. The non-oil exports made up about 19.4 percent of the total exports. The monitoring showed that exports of mineral products accounted for 74.62 percent of total exports at a value of SR72.48 billion. As for chemical industry products, they accounted for 7.39 percent of exports, amounting to SR7.18 billion. Export of plastic and their products, rubber and its products accounted for 6.73 percent of exports, with a value of SR6.54 billion. The General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) revealed that Saudi Arabia achieved a surplus in its trade balance for the 36th month in a row, and the value of the surplus amounted to about SR29.46 billion and the volume of foreign trade amounted to SR164.81 billion in the month of May. With regard to imports, they recorded an increase of 20.9 percent in May amounting to SR11.7 billion, reaching the total value of SR67.7 billion, compared to SR56 billion in May 2022, and the value of imports increased by SR9.8 billion (16.9 percent) compared to the previous month of April. It was revealed in the monitoring that China is the main trade partner of Saudi Arabia. The value of the Kingdom's exports to China amounted to SR16.9 billion, equivalent to 17.4 percent of the total exports. China was followed by India with a value of SR9.1 billion or 9.4 percent. Japan comes third with a value of 8.1 percent, representing 8.3 percent of all exports. South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, the United States of America, the Netherlands, Bahrain, Singapore and Taiwan were among the top 10 countries to which exports were made. The total of the Kingdom's exports to those ten countries amounted to SR64.2 billion, which represents 66.1 percent of total exports. The value of imports from China amounted to SR15.7 billion, accounting for 23.2 percent of the total imports, and it was followed by the United States of America with imports worth SR5.7 billion, equivalent to 8.4 percent of total imports.
