Saudi Arabia oil GDP falls 6.4 pct in 2009

Saudi Arabia's oil sector gross domestic product fell 6.4 per cent in 2009, its worst performance in at least four years, data showed on Sunday, after OPEC's most influential member cut output to support declining prices.

Oil sector's GDP, which accounts to around 54 percent of overall output of the world's largest Arab economy, reached 234.3 billion riyals ($62.48 billion) at constant prices in 2009, preliminary data from the statistics authority showed. The kingdom's gross domestic income from extraction of oil and gas fell by 7.6 per cent in 2009 to 199.7 billion riyals. Virtually all other economic sectors recorded modest increases this year, helping the overall GDP inch up by 0.15 per cent in real terms to 838.2 billion riyals, down from a 4.3 pe cent growth in 2008.