The Ministry of Planning reported yesterday that the Kingdom's non-oil exports rose by 10.3 percent to reach SR 5.89 billion [U.S. $ 1.57 billion] in the second quarter of 2000. The report also said that imports during the same period rose by 2.6 percent to SR 30 billion [U.S. $ 8 billion].
Nearly half of the non-oil exports were petrochemicals, accounting for SR 2.75 billion [U.S. $ 0.73 billion], compared with SR 1.96 billion [U.S. $ 0.52 billion] during the second quarter of 1999. Exports of plastic products came in second place with almost SR 0.95 billion [U.S. $ 0.25 billion], an increase of nearly five percent over the same period last year.

For imports, machinery and electrical equipment accounted for 22.4 percent at SR 6.73 billion [U.S. $ 1.79 billion], compared with SR 7.27 billion [U.S. $ 1.94 billion] during the same period last year. Food imports came in second place at SR 5.437 billion [U.S. $ 1.45 billion], accounting for 18.1 percent of all imports.
Products from western Europe accounted for 35.7 percent of the total, while 22.7 percent originated from non-Arab and non-Islamic Asian countries, and 21.1 percent from North America.

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