{"id":95812,"date":"2025-04-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/"},"modified":"2025-04-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T00:00:00","slug":"non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/","title":{"rendered":"Non-oil private sector growth slightly slower in March"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>Non-oil busines<\/strong>s activity in the Kingdom slowed its expansion slightly in March<\/strong>, according to the Riyad Bank Saudi Arabia PMI (pdf)<\/a>. The seasonally adjusted headline figure came in at 58.1 in March, dipping down from February\u2019s<\/a> reading of 58.4, as new business growth continued to increase, albeit at its slowest rate since October 2024.<\/p>\n

The new orders subindex fell to 63.2<\/strong>, down from 65.4 in February, according to Reuters<\/a>. Although the rate of growth in new orders slowed from the 14-year high seen in January, non-oil firms saw a \u201crobust demand environment\u201d at the end of the quarter, driven by enhanced marketing efforts, lower selling prices, and general improvements to economic conditions. Similarly, new orders from foreign markets also continued to rise, albeit at a slower rate.<\/p>\n

Firms\u2019 purchasing activity continued to rise<\/strong>, with businesses reporting another sharp rise in their total inventories \u2014 the fourth largest expansion recorded in series history. Meanwhile, input cost inflation fell to its lowest level in over four years, with firms seeing markedly weaker increases in purchasing prices. This, coupled with competition across the non-oil economy, led to a drop in selling prices \u2014 the first in six months.<\/p>\n

Employment growth remained largely unchanged from February\u2019s 16-month high<\/strong>, boosted by the increased sales volumes, with firms emphasizing \u201cefforts to build their sales teams and overall capacity.\u201d The first quarter of the year marked \u201cthe fastest pace of jobs growth since the third quarter of 2012,\u201d according to survey data.<\/p>\n

\u201cRising employment rates are a direct benefit of businesses scaling up operations to <\/strong>meet demand<\/strong>,\u201d Riyad Bank Chief Economist Naif Al Ghaith said.<\/p>\n

Staying the course:<\/strong> \u201cWhile we acknowledge the risks associated with lower oil revenue and rising government and external debt, we believe that the recalibration of infrastructure spending will maintain a strong sovereign balance sheet and external position,\u201d S&P Global Ratings Head of Analytics Hina Shoeb said<\/a> in a recent webinar. The World Bank<\/a> also expects \u201crobust activity in the non-oil sector \u2014 especially in services \u2014 as well as higher oil production and exports,\u201d it said in its latest Global Economic Prospects report.<\/p>\n

Not everyone seems to agree with this notion<\/strong>, however, with Capital Economics doubting the non-oil sector will withstand fiscal policy tightening. \u201cWe think GDP growth will accelerate this year as oil output cuts are unwound, but activity in the non-oil sector is likely to soften on the back of a turn to fiscal consolidation,\u201d Capital Economics\u2019 James Swanston wrote in a separate note<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The PMI figure came in at 58.1 in March, dipping down from February\u2019s reading of 58.4<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2571],"tags":[27,10,1365,571],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"class_list":["post-95812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","tag-economy","tag-enterpriseam-ksa","tag-non-oil-economy","tag-pmi","wpautop","entry"],"acf":{"mongo_id":"63479486-a164-4575-a8ac-7343e51d4393","order":"3","is_powered_by":false,"story_type":"1","photo_url":"https:\/\/ent.news\/2025\/4\/269.jpg","photo_position":"above","homepage_title":"","full_issue_title":"Non-oil private sector growth slightly slower in March","related_issue":[95807],"teaser":"The PMI figure came in at 58.1 in March, dipping down from February\u2019s reading of 58.4","voice_url":"https:\/\/s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/ent.news\/audio\/2025\/4\/.7a8fecd9-fe29-45c1-ada1-42c5dbe6a419.mp3"},"yoast_head":"\nNon-oil private sector growth slightly slower in March - KSA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Non-oil private sector growth slightly slower in March\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The PMI figure came in at 58.1 in March, dipping down from February\u2019s reading of 58.4\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"KSA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-08T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2025\/4\/269.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"enterpriseam admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"enterpriseam admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"enterpriseam admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/#\/schema\/person\/ca597032db7e4db868359c123cec256d\"},\"headline\":\"Non-oil private sector growth slightly slower in March\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-08T00:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/\"},\"wordCount\":416,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2025\/4\/269.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1\",\"keywords\":[\"ECONOMY\",\"EnterpriseAM KSA\",\"Non-oil economy\",\"PMI\"],\"articleSection\":[\"ECONOMY\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/\",\"name\":\"Non-oil private sector growth slightly slower in March - KSA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2025\/4\/269.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-08T00:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2025\/4\/269.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2025\/4\/269.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Non-oil private sector growth slightly slower in March\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/\",\"name\":\"KSA\",\"description\":\"The State of the Nation\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/#organization\",\"name\":\"KSA\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ent.news\/internal\/42482.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ent.news\/internal\/42482.svg\",\"caption\":\"KSA\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/#\/schema\/person\/ca597032db7e4db868359c123cec256d\",\"name\":\"enterpriseam admin\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/enterpriseam.testing.projectsarea.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/author\/enterpriseam\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Non-oil private sector growth slightly slower in March - KSA","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Non-oil private sector growth slightly slower in March","og_description":"The PMI figure came in at 58.1 in March, dipping down from February\u2019s reading of 58.4","og_url":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/","og_site_name":"KSA","article_published_time":"2025-04-08T00:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2025\/4\/269.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"enterpriseam admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"enterpriseam admin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/"},"author":{"name":"enterpriseam admin","@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/#\/schema\/person\/ca597032db7e4db868359c123cec256d"},"headline":"Non-oil private sector growth slightly slower in March","datePublished":"2025-04-08T00:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/"},"wordCount":416,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2025\/4\/269.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1","keywords":["ECONOMY","EnterpriseAM KSA","Non-oil economy","PMI"],"articleSection":["ECONOMY"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/","url":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/","name":"Non-oil private sector growth slightly slower in March - KSA","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2025\/4\/269.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1","datePublished":"2025-04-08T00:00:00+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2025\/4\/269.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2025\/4\/269.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/04\/08\/non-oil-private-sector-growth-slightly-slower-in-march\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Non-oil private sector growth slightly slower in March"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/#website","url":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/","name":"KSA","description":"The State of the Nation","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/#organization","name":"KSA","url":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ent.news\/internal\/42482.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ent.news\/internal\/42482.svg","caption":"KSA"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/#\/schema\/person\/ca597032db7e4db868359c123cec256d","name":"enterpriseam admin","sameAs":["http:\/\/enterpriseam.testing.projectsarea.com"],"url":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/author\/enterpriseam\/"}]}},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2025\/4\/269.jpg?resize=600%2C400&ssl=1","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2025\/4\/269.jpg?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1","author_info":{"display_name":"enterpriseam admin","author_link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/author\/enterpriseam\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ent.news\/2025\/4\/269.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95812\/revisions"}],"acf:post":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue\/95807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95812"},{"taxonomy":"brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/brand?post=95812"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=95812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}