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The General Authority for Statistics placed FDI outflows at SAR77.7 billion for the year, a 98.5 percent increase from SAR39.2 billion in 2024, while net FDI flows edged up 1.7 percent to SAR81.4 billion. The authority’s annual report showed the kingdom’s total FDI stock rising 8.3 percent to SAR1,058.8 billion by the end of 2025. Construction activities contributed the largest share of inflows at SAR34.5 billion, or 21.7 percent of the total, according to the same GASTAT document.
Manufacturing ranked second with SAR33.4 billion, accounting for 21 percent of inflows, followed by administrative and support services at SAR22.4 billion, or 14.1 percent, the statistics authority detailed. GASTAT figures show these three sectors together represented more than half of all new foreign investment recorded during the period. The report further indicated that manufacturing led outflows at SAR25.2 billion, or 32.4 percent of the total for that category.
In terms of net inflows by country, Luxembourg topped the list with SAR24.4 billion, the General Authority for Statistics found, while the United Arab Emirates and Egypt each recorded SAR9.4 billion and Yemen contributed SAR5.2 billion. The authority’s data placed the United Arab Emirates first in overall FDI stock at SAR170.7 billion, ahead of Luxembourg with SAR125.3 billion and the United States at SAR73 billion. These country-level breakdowns reflect the distribution of accumulated and new investment flows through the end of 2025.
GASTAT figures show that 2025 inflows stood five times higher than the 2017 level, while the FDI stock had doubled over the same eight-year span. The authority’s assessment placed the compound annual growth rate for inflows at 24 percent between 2017 and 2025, compared with 10 percent for the stock. Such sustained expansion coincides with structural reforms introduced under the kingdom’s Vision 2030 program.
An updated Investment Law that entered into force in February 2025 streamlined procedures and strengthened investor protections, Arab News reported in its coverage of the GASTAT release. The Regional Headquarters Program offers incentives for multinationals to locate operations in the kingdom, a step the publication linked to broader efforts to diversify the economy. Vision 2030 sets an annual FDI target of $100 billion by 2030, with the 2025 performance reaching roughly 42 percent of that goal according to calculations based on the authority’s data.
