According to a report in Bloomberg, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its expectations for Saudi Arabia’s oil production and economic growth in 2021 as crude prices soared over $70 a barrel this week and pandemic-related lockdowns continued to ease.
The Bloomberg report cited Farouk Soussa, Middle East and North Africa economist, who “lifted his assumptions for Saudi oil production by around 500,000 barrels per day, to reach 10 million barrels by the end of 2021 and 10.5 million in 2022,” Vivian Nereim reports. “That — combined with the release of favorable non-oil growth data on Monday — pushed Goldman to boost its growth forecast for gross domestic product to 4.5% this year, compared to an earlier 2.5%.”
Saudi Arabia’s non-oil economy grew at its fastest pace since 2019 in the first quarter, the government reported on Monday. Business is gradually returning to normal in Saudi Arabia following a period of oil market highs and lows since the start of the Pandemic and coronavirus-related lockdowns.
Soussa said in a research note that the Bank sees “risks to the oil sector as being significantly skewed to the upside,” and added that domestic demand has “recovered strongly.”
