Jadwa Investment’s recently released Chartbook for the month of January 2017 finds a mixed picture for the Saudi economy, including negative data on consumer spending and a significant dip in net change to government accounts with SAMA.
Data on consumer spending came out negative “partly reflecting the impact of allowance reductions to public sector employees,” Jadwa Investment said in an emailed research report, noting that Saudi Arabia’s non-oil PMI showed a rebound in November.
On the significant dip in net monthly change to government accounts – its sixth consecutive decline in November and second-largest net monthly withdraw of the year falling by SR55.9 billion – Jadwa noted the fall “was largely due to net withdrawals from allocated deposits for government projects, reflecting the resumption in government payments to contractors.”
Inflation continued to show signs of slowing down, and October data showed rebounds in both non-oil exports and imports.
