By: Bedour Elraee
Riyadh – Mubasher: Trade exchange between Saudi Arabia and other member countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), namely the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman, retreated by 6.8% year-on-year (YoY) in the first nine months of 2019.
A Mubasher survey based on the most recent data by the Saudi General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) showed that Saudi-GCC trade exchange amounted to SAR 74.23 ($19.78 billion) since the beginning of 2019 until the end of September, compared with SAR 79.724 billion for the same period last year.
This has mainly resulted from a decline in bilateral trade with the UAE, Saudi Arabia biggest Arab and Gulf trade partner.
However, the UAE has dominated 67% of Saudi-GCC trade, with SAR 49.73 billion, compared with SAR 57 billion in the first nine months of 2018.
Saudi exports to UAE increased slightly to SAR 20.55, while imports decreased to SAR 29.17 billion, from SAR 34.4 billion for the year-ago period.
Bahrain followed with a trade exchange of SAR 9.09 billion, 12.25% of the total Saudi-GCC trade during the nine-month period. Saudi exports to Bahrain amounted to SAR 4.183 billion, while imports recorded SAR 4.9 billion.
Oman came close in third place with (11.6%) SAR 8.625 billion trade exchange. Saudi exports to Oman stood at SAR 2.74 billion, versus imports of SAR 5.9 billion.
As for Saudi-Kuwaiti trade, which represented 9.15%, or SAR 6.8 billion. Saudi exports to Kuwait reached SAR 5.3 billion, while Kuwaiti exports to the Kingdom totalled SAR 1.5 billion.
