Summary
Saudi Arabia's economy began to recover in the first quarter of 2018 after shrinking for the first time in eight years during 2017, official data showed Sunday.
This allowed the oil sector, which comprises over 40 percent of the economy, to grow 0.6 percent from a year ago in the first quarter – a big contrast to its 4.3 percent decline in the last quarter of 2017 .
The non-oil sector grew just 1.6 percent from a year ago in the first quarter of 2018, only slightly faster than 1.3 percent in the previous quarter. Within that category the private sector, which authorities hope will create new jobs to bring down an unemployment rate of nearly 13 percent among Saudi citizens, inched up just 1.1 percent, faster than 0.4 percent in last year's fourth quarter.
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