RIYADH, Oct. 16 -- Saudi Arabia attracted a third more foreign direct investment in 2025 than the year before and finished the year with 1.7 percent more of it to show for the effort. Foreign investors put SR159.1 billion into the kingdom, the General Authority for Statistics said in its annual bulletin on Thursday, and SR77.7 billion went back out, leaving net flows of SR81.4 billion against SR80.0 billion in 2024.

Inflows rose 33.5 percent from SR119.2 billion, about $42.4 billion at the riyal's fixed rate of 3.75 to the dollar, and they were the highest of the four years GASTAT charts, 2022 to 2025. Construction took SR34.5 billion, or 21.7 percent of the total, and manufacturing SR33.4 billion. Arab News placed the figures alongside ...