Saudi Arabia’s economy contracted marginally in the third quarter from a year earlier, it was reported on Tuesday.
Figures from the country’s General Authority of Statistics showed a 0.46 percent decline, driven by a drop in oil output.
The data, cited by Reuters, showed that the oil sector output declined 6.43 percent, but non-oil output grew 4.33 percent, led by private sector activity.
The Saudi government has cut its forecast for economic growth to 0.4 percent in 2019 from 0.9 percent while it expects real GDP growth at 2.3 percent in 2020.
The latest figures showed that mining and quarrying, which accounts for 38.2 percent of GDP, saw the biggest fall of 6.39 percent while petroleum and refining dropped 6.11 percent.
Growth in the third quarter came from the wholesale and retail trade, and finance, insurance, real estate and business services.
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