00:00Saudi Arabia's economy saw its sharpest quarterly contractions since the COVID-19 pandemic
00:06as the war involving the United States, Israel and Iran weighs on its vital oil sector.
00:12GDP shrank 4.8% year-on-year in the second quarter
00:16after expanding 3% in the first three months of the year.
00:22Preliminary data from Saudi Arabia's statistics authority
00:25show the drop was driven by a 24.7% decline in oil activity,
00:31reversing a 2.9% growth in the previous quarter.
00:36Non-oil activity, a key focus of Riyadh's economic diversification plans,
00:41grew just 0.6%, slowing from 2.9% in the first quarter.
00:47Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter,
00:50has redirected some crude exports
00:53through a pipeline to the Red Sea port of Yanbu
00:55as an alternative route to global markets.
00:58But new threats from Iran-backed Houthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen
01:02have added further risk to regional shipping.
01:05A Reuters poll found most Gulf economies
01:08are now expected to contract more sharply this year
01:11than previously forecast.
01:13However, analysts expect a broader recovery across the region in 2027
01:17as conditions begin to stabilise.
01:23the
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