FX.co ★ Saudi Industrial Output Falls Least in 5 Months

Saudi Arabia’s industrial production declined 8.1% year-on-year in July 2026, easing from a 16.3% drop in June and marking the mildest contraction since February. The downturn in the oil sector moderated, with output falling 11.4% compared with a 23.2% decline in the previous month. This was mainly due to a smaller decrease in the extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas (-10.9% vs -27%), even as production of coke and refined petroleum products contracted more sharply (-13.6% vs -6%).

Output in other economic activities held steady at 3.4% growth. Within this category, production in electricity, gas, steam, and air-conditioning supply accelerated (4.5% vs 2.8%), as did water supply, sewerage, waste management, and remediation activities (7.8% vs 6%).

By contrast, non-oil activities edged down 0.3% after a 0.1% increase in June, weighed by a deeper contraction in manufacturing (-1.3% vs -0.5%).

On a monthly basis, overall industrial output jumped 10.4% in July, up from 4.6% in the previous month, registering its strongest month-on-month increase since April 2020.