Faced with the Covid-19 epidemic and the fall in oil, Saudi Arabia's economy has not held up.
Its GDP, which had shrunk by 1% in the first quarter, plunged 7% over the next three months.
The world's largest oil exporter is suffering from falling demand linked to the paralysis of the global economy.
It also suffers from the collapse of world prices, for which the rulers of the kingdom are partly responsible.
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The public sector, mainly linked to crude, "
recorded a negative growth rate of 3.5%,
" the General Statistics Authority said on Wednesday.
The private sector suffers more, with a plunge of 10.1% in the second quarter.
Non-oil activities, at the heart of reforms launched by Crown Prince Mohammed Ben Salman to diversify the economy, fell 8.2%.
The oil contraction was partly limited by the sharp rise in oil production in April
Monica malik
This discrepancy is "
not surprising,
" said Monica Malik, chief economist of the Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank.
"
The oil contraction was partly limited by the sharp rise in oil production in April," she
explains.
But the prolongation of the epidemic and the continued weakness of oil prices will still weigh on the economy.
While the budget tightening will restrict activity within the kingdom and limit job creation in the private sector, Monica Malik predicts, as the unemployment rate has reached a record high of 15.4%.
In July, Riyadh tripled the VAT in order to boost fiscal revenue.
But that caused consumption to drop 5.5% in August and inflation to jump to 6.2%.