Saudi Arabia’s economy under low oil prices

Abstract

The article examines the impact of lower global oil prices on the Saudi economy in the second half of the 2010s, as well as their plunge in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), which has spread across a significant number of countries in the world. Given the strong dependence of the kingdom on the production and black gold exports, the deterioration of the world oil market in 2015-2019 extremely adversely affected the Saudi economy, the growth slowed significantly in these years. The decline in oil revenues in 2020 once again reiterated the objective need for structural reforms in Saudi Arabia to drastically reduce the country’s dependence on oil. Therefore, the author pays special attention to the study of measures taken by the Saudi government in the framework of economic diversification in 2010s, as well as prospects in this area in the coming years. Particular emphasis is made on the analysis of the activities of the kingdom leadership in stimulating the non-oil growth.