RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s share of the Arab economy grew 0.4 percentage points in 2021, as it retained its position as the region’s largest economic player.

The Kingdom recorded a domestic output of $833.5 billion last year, the equivalent of 29.7 percent of the entire Arab region, according to a report of the Arab Corporation for Investment and Export Credit Guarantee, Dhaman.

The UAE was the second largest Arab economy, with $410 billion — 14.6 percent of the total, while Egypt ranked third, with a production of $402.8 billion.

Dhaman Director General Abdullah Ahmed Al-Sabeeh expects continued growth in 2022, especially after the value of foreign projects imported to the region increased by 86 percent to reach $21 billion during the first quarter of 2022, compared to the same period in 2021.

The report showed that the Arab economy as a whole, outperformed the eighth largest economy in the world, Italy, with a gross domestic product of $2.1 trillion.

Foreign direct investment grew in the region, with inflow increasing by 43 percent year-on-year, equal to about $53 billion.

This brought the FDI total to around $1.58 trillion.

Those inflows represent 6.3 percent of incoming flows to developing countries and 3.3 percent of global flows.

More than 96 percent of the increased inflows are concentrated in just five countries, led by the UAE with $20.7 billion, and followed by Saudi Arabia with $19.3 billion.

Egypt came in third place with a value of $5.1 billion, followed by Oman in fourth place with a value of $3.6 billion, Morocco in fifth place with $2.2 billion worth of inflows, Dhaman annual monitoring data showed.

FDI balances received by Arab countries increased by the end of 2021 from $958 billion to more than $1 trillion in 2021, according to UNCTAD data.

For the total amount received, Saudi Arabia topped the Arab ranking with $261 billion, representing 26 percent of the Arab total, followed by the UAE with $171.6 billion, and Egypt with $137.5 billion.