Congratulating the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and his crown prince on announcing the largest budget in the history of Saudi Arabia Dr.Fahad AL-Tukhaifi: the budget adopts an “organized planning’’ as a new approach for development On his behalf and on behalf of all GASTAT’s employees as well as all the statistical sectors in Saudi Arabia, president of GASTAT, Dr.Fahad Bin Sulaiman AL-Tukhaifi congratulates the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman Bin Abdulaziz and his crown prince HRH Prince Mohmmad Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz on announcing the budget of 1440/1441 H as the largest expenditure budget in the history of Saudi Arabia. Moreover, it reflects the directions of the wise leadership in the country that helped to reduce the budget’s deficit by (4.2%) of GDP. AL-Tukhaifi confirmed that the budget proves that organized planning is the adopted approach used for development in Saudi Arabia at the present time and for the future as well. In addition, numbers that were included in the budget were achieved by organized planning, remarkable procedures, and a clear vision and aim. He added that the speech of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques during the budget’s announcement emphasized the ongoing support to boost the economic growth in Saudi Arabia, enhance the expenditure’s quality, and to attain financial sustainability and balance. Moreover, this can be reached by accomplishing Saudi Arabia’s 2030 vision objectives through increasing the size of the national economy and keeping its growth. Also, by heading towards economic reform, financial management and control, enhancing transparency and enabling the private sector. The custodian of the Two Holy Mosques directs all officials to quickly start the implementation of the budget which reflects his constant concern that all government entities will be able to meet citizens’ expectations and moving from only providing services to surpassing in providing these services. Dr. AL-Tukhaifi said:” the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques concludes his words by affirming that the comprehensive development will continue and will cover all regions of Saudi Arabia and that is his main concern; this shows the commitment of the leadership that the development covers all the regions of Saudi Arabia and in all fields as well’’. On the other hand, GASTAT’s president confirmed that the parts included in the budget will guarantee an effective contribution to enhance the government expenditure, also to enhance the quality, accuracy and transparency of financial accounts. Therefore, financial efficiency level will increase and benefit of projects will be maximized and that will be reflected on what is obtained by the citizen from the outputs of these projects. May God protect this country and keep its safety and prosperity, he concluded.

GASTAT Releases for the First Time Industrial Activity Survey's Results-2017 On Thursday, Rabi al-Thany 6th,1440 H (corresponding to December 13th ,2018), the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) released the results of the " Industrial Activity Survey for 2017" to support the national development. This Survey was carried out for the first time by GASTAT and is considered outputs of the statistical transformation in Saudi Arabia which have been started since the beginning of the last year. The Authority has released so far more than sixty-five statistical products including economic, social, demographic, and Umrah statistics. In addition to other statistics related to labor market, energy, knowledge, environment, culture, sport, entertainment, security and safety. The Industrial Activity Survey is an annual survey based on field data collected by visiting establishments all over Saudi Arabia's regions. The results of the Survey include more than nineteen statistical indicators related to the features and components of private and public sectors establishments. The Survey concerns the activities of mining, quarrying, manufacturing, electricity, gas, and steam supply, air conditioning, water supply, sanitation, in addition to waste management and process. The results also provide detailed and accurate data to meet the needs of the relevant parties in line with the international recommendations specialized in industrial activity surveys. The Authority appreciated the role of all the relevant governmental and private entities that contributed to the design of the survey's form, and submitted their proposals according to the needs of data and information for the economic sector generally and industrial sector particularly. This is done through mutual team works and continuous workshops in order to ensure that the statistical product outputs have met all the requirements. The results of the Industrial Activity Survey showed that the number of industrial establishments made up (112,785) one hundred twelve thousand, seven hundred eighty-five establishments, with 31% of Saudi workers. According to the results, the operating expenses of the industrial establishments exceeded about (484.712 million) four hundred eighty-four billion, seven hundred twelve million SAR, whereas the value of the operating revenues of the industrial establishments reached in 2017 around (1,516,844,817,326) one trillion, five hundred sixteen billion, eight hundred forty-four million, eight hundred seventeen thousand, three hundred twenty-six SAR. The percentage of Saudi workers working at the following establishments: crude oil and natural gas, other manufacturing, as well as coke and refined petroleum products reached 84%, 80% and78% respectively out of the total number of Saudi workers in the industrial establishment, the results showed. It is worth mentioning that GASTAT releases, in addition to the survey of industrial activity, a number of products related to the industry sector. Such as, index of industrial production survey which measures the relative change and any developments in the quantities of material and commodities production. Additionally, environment economic survey (industry) that reflects the norms of water and energy consumption in Saudi Arabia by the establishments and wastes resulting from these activities and potential ecological effects. The Industrial Activity Survey is the third statistical product published by the Authority in the field of industry. It aims to provide comprehensive industrial statistics in different regions of Saudi Arabia, for instance: statistics and compensations of industry workers as well as operating and transfer expenses. In addition to the size, revenues value, and contribution to GDP of industrial production. GASTAT has published the Survey's results, field research forms and others results on its official website www.stats.gov.sa . The products are in various information formats, so researchers, scholars and decision-makers can benefit from them and conduct data analysis.

“GASTAT” Releases the Results of the Household Energy Survey for 2018 The General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) released the results of the “Household Energy Survey (2018)” on its official website www.stats.gov.sa. It is a field survey that collects household energy data from a sample of households covering all 13 administrative regions across the Kingdom.  This data can calculate many estimates and indicators about energy consumption in the domestic sector. The Household Energy survey aims at providing data related to the housing characteristics such as the type of housing, its components, the areas that are air-conditioned and heated, the impact of economic, social and geographical variables on energy consumption, household uses of fuel of all kinds to supplement the primary consumption coverage of various energy forms, which contributes to the preparation of energy balance, identifying patterns of energy consumption and the forms of energy used in the domestics sector. The results of the household energy survey showed that (100%) of the households use electricity in their houses. (99.85%) of their houses are connected to the public electricity network. (0.11%) use a private network as a source for electricity, while (0.04%) use a generator as a source of electricity. The results also showed that the percentage of households using solar energy at homes reached (1.45%). The results also showed that the percentage of households using an independent electric meter reached (84.33%), while (15.67%) are using an electric meter shared with other houses, whereas (15.38%) use power regulator at home. Regarding the use of fuel, the results showed that about (90.72%) of households use gas as the main fuel for cooking, while (8.74%) of households use electricity for cooking. In addition, (8.22%) of households use (wood, coal and agricultural waste) at home for heating and cooking. Regarding the patterns and behavior of households in the rationalization of power consumption, the results showed that (59.84%) of households are interested in 65cutting expenses or rationalization of power consumption. It also showed that (35.75%) of the households are likely interested in power consumption rationalization while only (4.41%) of the households are not interested at all in cutting expenses or rationalizing power consumption. The results showed that (29.35%) of the households have power savers at their houses while (70.65%) of households don’t have power savers to rationalize consumption Furthermore, the results of the Household Energy Survey showed that the total consumption of household fuel (fuel oil), kerosene and LPG reached more than 1 billion liters (1,023,585,906) in all regions of the Kingdom. The volume of consumption of diesel (fuel oil) reached about (3,519,261) three million five hundred thousand liters, which represents about (0.34%) total consumption volume, while the consumption of gas (kerosene) reached more than nineteen million L (19,691,996) representing about 1.92% of the total volume of consumption. The volume of consumption of gas (LPG) reached about one billion liters (1,000,374,649) in 2018, representing (97.74%) of the total volume of consumption. The results of the Household Energy Survey showed that (35.14%) of households in the Kingdom spend less than 5% of their income on electricity and other sources of fuel, while (43.08%) of the households spend between (5-10%) on energy, while (15.76%) of households spend between (11-15%) on energy. (4.01%) of households spend between (16-20%) of their income on energy and (2%) Spends more than (20%) of its income on electricity and other fuel sources. It is worth mentioning that the Household Energy Survey of 2018 is the second survey conducted by the General Authority for Statistics on an annual basis.