By: El-Sayed Gamal 

Riyadh – Mubasher: The foreign direct investments (FDI) of Saudi Arabia grew by 1.97% year-on-year (YoY) or SAR 17.11 billion ($4.56 billion) in 2019 when compared to 2018.

The kingdom's FDI reached SAR 885.62 billion ($236.17 billion) last year, up from SAR 868.51 billion ($231.6 billion) in 2018, according to data collected by Mubahser based on official statistics released by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA).

Meanwhile, the net FDI increased by 12.87% to SAR 17.1 billion ($4.56 billion) in 2019, compared to SAR 15.14 billion ($4.04 billion) during the earlier year.

On a quarterly basis, the FDI in Saudi Arabia went up by 0.44% or SAR 3.91 billion ($1.04 billion) during the fourth quarter of 2019, versus SAR 881.72 billion ($235.12 billion) during the same period of 2018.

Foreign Investments 

At the same time, the foreign investments jumped by 14.1% YoY or SAR 220.11 billion ($58.7 billion) to SAR 1.779 trillion ($474.6 billion) last year from SAR 1.559 trillion ($415.9 billion) in 2018.

The rise in foreign investments was supported by a 34.5% growth in portfolio investments to SAR 477.35 billion ($127.29 billion) in 2019 from SAR 355.03 billion ($94.67 billion) during the earlier year.