Saudi Trade Surplus More Than Doubles in April as Oil and Machinery Exports Climb
Saudi Arabia’s merchandise trade surplus more than doubled in April, giving the Kingdom a stronger external balance at a time when global trade flows remain uneven and energy markets are still adjusting to regional tensions. Preliminary data from the General Authority for Statistics show the surplus widened to about 25.43 billion riyals, around 6.79 billion dollars, up 100.8 percent from a year earlier. Merchandise exports rose 9.3 percent year on year to 101.17 billion riyals, while imports fell 5.2 percent to 75.74 billion riyals.
The headline number matters because the improvement was not only a price story. Oil exports remained the dominant source of external income, rising 11.7 percent year on year and accounting for 68.8 percent of total merchandise exports, up from 67.4 percent in April 2025. That implies oil export value of roughly 69.6 billion riyals in April, leaving non-oil exports at just over 31.5 billion riyals. The mix therefore produced a double effect: higher export receipts on one side and a lower import bill on the other.
Reading the surplus
A useful way to read the data is through the export coverage ratio. Total exports were about 1.34 times imports in April, compared with roughly 1.16 times a year earlier based on the reported growth rates. The surplus itself represented about 25 percent of total exports and about 34 percent of imports. In practical terms, Saudi Arabia generated an additional surplus of roughly 12.8 billion riyals compared with April 2025, a meaningful monthly improvement for the external account that supports the view that the Kingdom remains externally resilient even when global demand conditions are mixed.
The non-oil and diversification signal
The non-oil detail is important. The ratio of non-oil exports, including re-exports, to imports increased to 41.6 percent from 37.8 percent a year earlier. This is a cleaner diversification indicator than the headline surplus because it compares non-oil export performance against the import base. A four percentage point gain means non-oil exports are covering a larger share of the Kingdom’s import needs. It does not eliminate oil dependence, but it shows the non-oil channel becoming more relevant in monthly external performance.
The strongest non-oil signal came from machinery, electrical equipment and parts, which accounted for 28.1 percent of non-oil exports and grew about 70 percent year on year. Based on total non-oil exports of 31.52 billion riyals, that category alone was worth about 8.9 billion riyals in April, against an implied 5.2 billion a year earlier. The split inside non-oil exports also matters: re-exports rose 20.4 percent while national non-oil exports excluding re-exports fell 7.3 percent. That points less to a broad surge in domestically produced goods and more to a stronger trading hub and logistics role, supported by re-exports and machinery flows, which is still strategically central to Vision 2030.
Destination data reinforce the regional trade angle. The official DataSaudi portal shows the main non-oil export destinations in April were the UAE at about 10.1 billion riyals, India at 2.2 billion and Jordan at 1.4 billion. The UAE share underscores the continued integration of Gulf supply chains, where goods often move through regional distribution networks before final use or onward shipment.
Why it matters
A 5.2 percent drop in imports improves the surplus mechanically, but it can mean several things, from the timing of capital goods shipments to softer consumer demand, so the print should not be read as a simple sign of weak domestic activity. The better conclusion is that the external position strengthened in April while the domestic demand signal remains mixed and needs confirmation from retail, PMI and industrial data. For the GCC, a wider Saudi surplus supports external buffers and regional macro stability; for markets, the data also show that even with diversification progress, oil still drives close to 69 percent of export receipts, keeping the external account sensitive to crude prices, OPEC plus policy and global oil demand.
Outlook
The outlook depends on three indicators: whether oil export values stay firm enough to keep the surplus elevated, whether machinery and electrical exports keep growing or April was partly a shipment-timing effect, and whether re-exports keep compensating for weaker national non-oil exports. If the non-oil-to-imports ratio holds near or above 40 percent in coming months, April will look like part of a real diversification trend; if it falls back, the month should be treated as strong but not yet conclusive.
Sources: General Authority for Statistics; DataSaudi.
