Saudi foreign direct investment inflows jump 33.5% to 159 billion riyals

Summary

• FDI inflows into Saudi Arabia rose 33.5% in 2025 to about 159 billion riyals.
• The total FDI stock climbed 8.3% to 1,059 billion riyals, crossing the trillion-riyal mark.
• Inflows are now more than five times their 2017 level, a Vision 2030 performance indicator.

The latest

Foreign direct investment inflows into Saudi Arabia reached roughly 159 billion riyals in 2025, a 33.5% increase on 2024, the Saudi Press Agency reported. The accumulated stock of foreign direct investment in the Kingdom rose 8.3% over the same year to 1,059 billion riyals, pushing past the trillion-riyal threshold for the first time. Riyadh framed the figures as evidence of progress toward Vision 2030 targets.

Details

• The headline figure: Inflows of foreign direct investment — new capital entering the Saudi economy during the year — totalled about 159 billion riyals in 2025, up 33.5% from 2024, according to the Saudi Press Agency. The announcement did not break the total down by sector or by country of origin.
• The stock: Separately from annual inflows, the cumulative stock of foreign direct investment held in the Kingdom rose 8.3% to 1,059 billion riyals by the end of 2025. That crossing of the trillion-riyal line is presented as evidence that the base of foreign holdings in the economy is widening, not merely turning over.
• The 2017 baseline: Measured against 2017, inflows have risen more than fivefold, while the investment stock has doubled over the same period. The choice of 2017 as a comparison point places the series just before the full rollout of the Vision 2030 investment agenda.
• Growth rates: The compound annual growth rate for inflows across that period stands at 24%, against 10% for the stock, according to the Saudi Press Agency. The gap between the two rates reflects inflows accelerating faster than the accumulated base can absorb them.
• The policy link: The volume of foreign direct investment inflows is one of the indicators of the National Transformation Program, tied to the strategic objective of attracting foreign and domestic investment. The Ministry of Investment leads that objective.
• What was not published: The announcement set out aggregate inflow and stock figures without naming the leading source markets, the destination sectors, or the share accounted for by any single transaction. No quarterly breakdown of the 2025 performance was given.
• Currency context: All figures were released in Saudi riyals rather than dollars. The riyal is pegged to the US dollar, which keeps the reported growth rates free of exchange-rate distortion when converted.

Background

Vision 2030, launched in 2016, set targets for diversifying the Saudi economy away from oil revenue, with foreign investment among its measured objectives. The National Transformation Program is one of the delivery programs built under it, tracking performance through specific indicators assigned to lead ministries.

Between the lines

The 24% compound growth rate for inflows against 10% for the stock is the more telling pair of numbers. A stock that doubles while inflows rise more than fivefold suggests the recent acceleration is concentrated in the latest years rather than spread evenly since 2017. Without a sectoral or country breakdown, how much of the 2025 jump rests on a small number of large transactions cannot be read from the published totals.

What's next

Watch for the Ministry of Investment's sectoral and source-country breakdown of the 2025 figures, and for quarterly 2026 inflow data that would show whether the 33.5% pace holds or reflects one-off transactions.

Source: Saudi Press Agency (SPA)