Saudi Arabia economy grows at fastest pace in decade on oil boom

Saudi Arabia's economy grew at the fastest pace in more than a decade in the first quarter- riding on booming oil prices and rising production.

Gross domestic production rose by 9.6% year-on-year, reports Bloomberg citing  the Saudi General Authority for Statistics

That's the highest figure since the third quarter of 2011, the report added.

Non-oil GDP expanded by 3.7%, compared with 4.7% in the final quarter of 2021.

Saudi Arabia is the world's biggest oil exporter and has benefited from a price surge in the past year, first due to demand recovering from the coronavirus pandemic and then to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Brent is up 38% in 2022 to $107 a barrel, having climbed 50% last year.

OPEC+, a group of oil exporters led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, has also been increasing production. Riyadh pumped 10.3 million barrels a day of crude in March, the most since April 2020.