News

The General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) today released the Short-Term Business Statistics publication for November 2025. According to the publication’s findings, the Operating Revenue Index for short-term businesses in the Kingdom recorded a 5.0% increase in November 2025 compared to the same month in 2024. This increase is primarily attributed to growth in several key economic activities. Manufacturing recorded a 6.5% rise, while wholesale and retail trade and vehicle repair activities grew by 9.5%. The construction sector also increased by 7.4%. In addition, financial and insurance activities, as well as information and communication activities, rose by 14.4% and 8.6%, respectively.
On the other hand, the Employee Compensation Index within the Short-Term Business Statistics recorded a year-on-year increase of 13.6%. This growth was driven by an 18.8% rise in manufacturing activities, a 4.7% increase in construction, and a 10.5% increase in wholesale and retail trade and vehicle repair activities. In addition, mining and quarrying activities grew by 15.0%, while financial and insurance activities increased by 9.5%.
It is noteworthy that the Short-Term Business Statistics product is among the most prominent newly released economic statistical products issued by GASTAT. This product aims to measure the short-term performance of various economic sectors through monthly indicators that track developments and growth rates across different activities. The product covers all the economic activities of establishments operating within the business sector across Saudi Arabia.
 

The annual inflation rate in Saudi Arabia reached 2.1% in December 2025, compared to December 2024, while it recorded a monthly increase of 0.1% compared to November 2025. In the same context, the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) increased by 3.1% in December 2025 compared to the same period in 2024 and rose by 1.0% on a monthly basis. It is worth noting that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) reflects changes in prices paid by consumers for a fixed basket of 582 goods and services, while the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) measures the price movements of goods at pre-retail stages, based on a fixed basket of 343 items.

The General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT), in collaboration with Open Data Watch and PARIS21, will co-organize a virtual panel discussion on Commit to Data on Tuesday, 20 January 2026, as part of Road to Riyadh events. It aims to strengthen international and cross-sector partnerships to support the development of resilient and sustainable data systems, promote sustainable financing to drive innovation across the statistical ecosystem, enhance capacity-building efforts within national statistical offices through skills development and knowledge exchange, and showcase the Commit to Data initiative.

General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) issued the Industrial Production Index (IPI) publication for November 2025. According to the preliminary results, the Industrial Production Quantity Index increased by 10.4% on an annual basis, compared with the same month in 2024. This growth was supported by the performance of mining and quarrying activities, manufacturing activities, as well as water supply, sewerage, waste management, and remediation activities. On a monthly basis, the index recorded a decrease of 0.7% compared with October 2025.
The sub-index for mining and quarrying activities registered an annual increase of 12.6% in November 2025, driven by higher oil production levels, which rose to 10.1 million barrels per day compared with 8.9 million barrels per day in November 2024. On a monthly basis, the sub-index increased by 0.5%.
It is worth noting that IPI reflects changes in the volume of industrial production quantities, based on data from the Industrial Production Survey conducted on a sample of establishments operating in mining and quarrying, manufacturing, electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply, as well as water supply, sewerage, waste management, and remediation activities. The data are classified according to National Classification of Economic Activities (ISIC4), and results are published on a monthly basis in accordance with approved statistical methodologies.