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Saudi Arabia
EXTERNAL TRADE AND FINANCE
Foreign Trade
Crude oil, refined products and natural gas liquids accounted
for the bulk of Saudi exports. Nevertheless, the percentage of
crude oil and petroleum product exports fell slightly during the
1980s as a result of the growth in petrochemical and other chemical
exports. These products have come mainly from Sabic's companies.
After declining to their lowest levels in the 1970s and 1980s,
following the oil price crash of 1986, exports had steadily recovered
by 1992, both as a result of improved oil prices and Saudi Arabia's
international market share of world oil supplies. Moreover, as
Sabic created a new petrochemical capacity, nonoil exports rose
as well. The direction of exports has been influenced by Saudi
Arabia's oil customers. During the early 1980s, Asia and Western
Europe were the major purchasers of Saudi oil. By the end of the
decade, Europe had ceded its share to Asia and North America (see
table 10, Appendix).
Saudi import levels have closely followed overseas oil earnings
and government expenditures. SAMA, which published data on imports,
did not include military imports in merchandise import figures.
Some military imports were included in the current account under
government service imports (see Current Account , this ch.). Falling
from a peak in the mid-1980s of US$40 billion to US$50 billion
per annum, imports maintained levels of around US$20 billion during
the late 1980s before starting to climb again in 1990 to 1992.
Machinery, appliances, and electrical equipment constituted the
largest import category, although in line with lower domestic
investment these items fell in terms of total share. In 1984 this
category accounted for 24 percent of imports but by 1990 it had
declined to 16 percent. Foodstuffs have been the second largest
category: in 1984 these items made up 16 percent and fell only
slightly to 14 percent in 1990. The decline in food imports resulted
mainly from domestic import substitution of vegetable products.
During the 1980s, chemical products, jewelry and metals, and other
transport items exhibited the largest growth in imports. Chemical
products, the third largest import category in 1990, constituted
around 12 percent of imports. The principal source of imports
was Western Europe, which maintained its share at 44 percent for
much of the 1980s. The United States supplied 17 percent of the
kingdom's imports, whereas Japan's share was 15 percent, having
decreased from around 20 percent in the mid-1980s. Saudi Arabia
brought only 3 to 4 percent of imported goods from the rest of
the Middle East.
Data as of December 1992
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